The Fatal Turnabout
by Shikola Krasno . Melody Canta
Summary: Ten years ago, Phoenix faced the most difficult trial of his life and buried his darkest demon in the past where she would never be able to hurt anyone again, or so he thought. A threatening message and a mysterious package mark the return of the biggest monster the defense attorney and his crazy company ever faced, and she's hungry for revenge. Last time she played by the rules...
1. The Gift of Turnabout

**The Fatal Turnabout**

**A Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Story**

All characters are property of CAPCOM. The plot was heavily influenced by Hudson Soft. We don't own anything in this other than the final plotline and idea.

FULL SUMMARY :: Ten years ago, Phoenix Wright faced the most difficult trial of his life and buried his darkest demon in the past where she would never be able to hurt anyone again, or so he thought. A threatening message and a mysterious package mark the return of the biggest monster the defense attorney and his crazy company ever faced, and she's hungry for revenge. Last time she played by the rules of their world, this time they'll play by the rules of hers. When the living walk among the dead, it's only a matter of time until they join their ranks.

Rated T for intense situations, violence, mentions of suicide, death, and just general horror.

**Author's Note:** This is a collaboration between Melody Canta and Shikola Krasno, so we'll both be writing different sections. This is a strange mix of horror and a little of everything else. We're flexible. This is heavily influenced by Hudson Soft's _Calling _(which you can find on both the Wii and PC, so if you haven't checked it out, do!) Don't worry if you haven't played it though; we find that most people haven't. This fanfiction isn't dependent on knowing the game, though it'll be more enjoyable if you have. We're not strictly sticking to the plotlines of either games, so keep reading, and this might surprise you. We're excited to get started, so onward with the prologue!

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><p><strong>Prologue :: The Gift of Turnabout<strong>

It started out as a mostly normal day at the Wright Anything Agency. Phoenix was finishing up paperwork from his most recent trial, the murder of a parrot named Helfrich von Something-that-meant-a-lot-of-paperwork-for-Edgeworth. The prosecutor, already irritated with losing the case, had been furious when he realized that his ringtone was now Helfrich saying "Not guilty. _Squak_. No, not guilty." How his face had reddened when he received his first phone call, right inside the courtroom lobby after the trial, was the only thing making this bearable.

Phoenix was on page three of fifteen when his phone beeped. A text message. He reached across the desk, relieved for the distraction, and immediately sighed when he saw what it was.

"_OMG HI GUYS!"_

For the three days Maya had been in Los Angeles for her visit, she'd been attempting to learn the intricacies of group chats. Of course, to even get into the intricacies, she had to learn to send one to begin with. Hence the seven, "Did I do it?" messages he had received recently.

He smirked and typed back, _"Think you've done it this time?"_

A smaller chat bubble popped up under his, a purple one rather than the green and blue bubbles his and Maya's were. _"Who is this?"_

Blue bubble. Maya. _"Really, Edgeworth? You don't remember me? You're never getting a Christmas present from me ever again. D: Especially not a Limited Edition Steel Samurai figurine."_

Phoenix snorted. He and Edgeworth were the two she decided to start her group chat with? Really?

Well, maybe not. A pink bubble had entered the conversation. Now that four people were in the chat, everyone's names showed next to their messages. _"Larry Butz: Mayaaaaaaaa! What's up, little lady?"_

Phoenix blinked in surprise. Larry too?

Oh god. How many people had Maya added to the conversation?

"_Miles Edgeworth: Maya Fey?"_

With a sigh, Phoenix put his paperwork aside and focused fully on his phone.

* * *

><p>Conversation: Group Chat (7)<p>

_Maya Fey_: OMG HI GUYS

_Phoenix Wright_: Think you've done it this time?

_Miles Edgeworth_: Who is this?

_Maya Fey_: Really, Edgeworth? You don't remember me? You're never getting a Christmas present from me ever again. D: Especially not a Limited Edition Steel Samurai figurine.

_Larry Butz_: Mayaaaaaaaa! What's up, little lady?

_Miles Edgeworth_: Maya Fey?

_Phoenix Wright_: Maya, if you've added Franziska, I'm leaving.

_Franziska von Karma_: What was that, Wright?

_Phoenix Wright_: Nothing! Good afternoon, Franziska.

_Maya Fey_: Wow, you guys all type so fast! o_o Hi Larry! And Edgeworth, I'm ignoring you. D:

_Athena Cykes_: Hi everyone! Oh wow, this is so exciting~ Can I add people too, Maya?

_Miles Edgeworth_: Please don't.

_Maya Fey_: Sure! C:

_21 contacts added to conversation._

_Phoenix Wright_: Athena!

_Apollo Justice_: 21 is a bit much, don't you think?

_Old Windbag_: is my edgeypoo online?

_Miles Edgeworth_: Maya!

_Maya Fey_: Sorry, Edgeworth. I don't know how to take her out of the chat. D:

_Larry Butz_: The more the merrier, right?

_Miles Edgeworth_: No.

_?_: You all will suffer.

_Phoenix Wright_: Maya? Who's that?

_Maya Fey_: I don't know. D: I didn't add anyone else. Athena?

_Athena Cykes_: I don't know who it is either.

_Franziska von Karma_: You! State your name and occupation!

_?_: I will take my revenge.

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><p>Phoenix blinked, slightly alarmed. Maya had a knack for getting into trouble, and adding someone who wanted her dead into a group chat was mild compared to some of the other stuff she'd accidentally done.<p>

Almost as soon as he had put the phone down, it started ringing.

This was how horror movies started. First you got the message, and then the call with the heavy breathing and whispered "You have seven days." His breathing ramped up, panicked despite himself.

There's no such thing as ghosts. There's no such thing as ghosts. There's no such thing as—

Wait a minute.

Luckily, the caller ID flashed across the screen a second later. Larry. He let out the breath he'd been holding, a bit embarrassed, and picked up the phone. "Texting wasn't enough for you?"

"Nick! Meet me at the Detention Center, pronto!"

"Huh? Larry, what's wrong?"

"Just hurry!"

Phoenix sighed, wondering whether he would be defending Larry or his girlfriend this time.

* * *

><p>"Make sure to watch over him this time, okay?" the prison guard said. Phoenix sighed. He should have expected it when Larry didn't spam the group chat repeatedly. According to the police, his friend had received a package from a "secret admirer", and made enough racket for the neighbors to believe a domestic dispute had started. Someone had called the police, and when they arrived, Larry had shoved the package in their faces. Leading, of course, to his arrest.<p>

He supposed he could count himself lucky that the prison guard recognized Larry enough to realize the dope hadn't meant any harm.

"The bomb squad checked the package and they didn't find anything. You still want it?"

Larry beamed. "I want to open it now!"

Phoenix and the guard exchanged glances, but the guard finally shrugged and nodded. "If he starts destroying stuff, at least we won't have to bring him far."

Larry gave a rather feminine squeal before tearing into the box. Styrofoam peanuts flew everywhere as he searched, finally pulling out a small black object. "Wow! It's . . . it's . . . it's the other half of a heart! Some lady has given me her love! Nick, look!"

He thrust it out towards the attorney, and Phoenix peered over the cup of his hand to see a black . . . magatama? Phoenix took his out, still glowing green with spiritual power. "Larry, that's not a heart. See the hole in it?"

Larry blinked. "It's just like yours!" He paused for a second, going pale. "Nick, please don't tell me—"

"NO! No no no no no no no! Maya gave me this one."

"So Maya sent me—?"

Phoenix shook his head. "I don't think so. Why would she have sent it in the mail?" And why was it black? With the whole black psyche-lock thing, this seemed concerning, at least. "I don't know about this, Larry. Maybe you should get rid of it."

"No! Don't be jealous, Nick!"

"I'm not—"

"Jealous."

"No, I—"

"Jealous."

Phoenix sighed. Obviously, Larry wasn't going to listen. "Anyways, I got you out of jail. Can I go home now?"

Larry's face fell. "Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I—Can I stay at your place tonight?"

"Why?"

Larry scratched the back of his head. "It's just . . . with that strange text message and all, and the guard said my neighbors are kind of mad at me . . ."

Sigh. "Fine. Anything to keep you from owing me more for bail."

"Thanks, Nick! You're the best!"

* * *

><p>Conversation: Group Chat (28)<p>

_Larry Butz_: Party at Nick's office!

_Maya Fey_: WHAT?! Nick, how could you not invite me? ;o;

_Phoenix Wright_: WHAT? NO, NO THERE IS NOT! LARRY!

_Athena Cykes_: Yay! I knew something great was going to come out of this group chat!

_Phoenix Wright_: NO!

_Apollo Justice_: Maya, don't feel left out. He didn't tell me either.

_Maya Fey_: God, Nick! You left out some of your closest friends! Now I'm ignoring you too. D: But I'll be there.

_Phoenix Wright_: Maya, I didn't tell you because THERE IS NO PARTY!

_Trucy Wright_: Oh, can we pleaaaaaaaaase, Daddy?

_Apollo Justice_: Trucy, how long have you been in this conversation?

_Trucy Wright_: For a while. C: Pleaaaaaaaase, Daddy? Pretty please? With sugar on top? And sprinkles? And MAGIIIIIIIIIIIIC?

_Phoenix Wright_: Fine. Just a few people though. And only for a few hours!

* * *

><p>Somehow a few hours had morphed into a sleepover at the office. Complete with horror movies, courtesy of Athena ("well, we all got that creepy message, right? Now we can watch scary movies and laugh!"). They were on the first half of the first movie when Phoenix's eyes started drifting closed. "I think I'm gonna go to bed," he said.<p>

"Nick, you're such an old man. You can't even get through the first movie?" Maya asked.

"Nope. And I have no desire to either."

"Daddy, do you know where the flashlight is?"

He racked his brain before shaking his head. "Why?"

"In case we tell scary stories afterwards!"

He thought for a moment before tossing the magatama towards his daughter. "This is the best I can do. Sorry, Maya."

She shrugged. "I use mine to find the bathroom in the night."

"Anyways, good night, everyone. Keep it down and try not to kill each other please."

They all nodded. "Good night!"

It wasn't until he was in bed and drifting off to sleep that he realized he hadn't mentioned Larry's black magatama to Maya. Oh well, he supposed. It could probably wait until morning.

* * *

><p><strong>AN (Melody) :: And the prologue is done!**

**A few administrative things before I go into the prologue and talk about it. As mentioned above, Shikola and I are co-authoring this story, which meant that we had to break things up somehow. If you've ever played the Calling, you know that the game is broken up into sections for each character. We used that to break up our chapters. I'll be doing the Rin and Shin chapters, and Shikola will be doing the Chiyo and Makoto chapters. Of course, that means that the first few chapters will be all me. I've written the prologue as well, though I won't be writing all of the grey area chapters.**

**Onto the fun part! We're super excited to be writing this, and since this is really my first collaboration, I'm thrilled to be working with Shikola. We really hope you guys enjoy this, and I'll try to get the next chapter up and ready ASAP!**

**Read and Review?**

**[Edit: Changed summary 1/14/14]**


	2. The Possession

**Chapter One :: The Possession**

Cell phones, a bathroom, three teenage girls, and a group text message. Larry Butz liked to think that he was a fairly easygoing guy, able to adapt to just about everything. The last hour, however, tested even him.

And where was he now?

It was a bedroom, though he was on the floor rather than the bed. Of course, it wasn't the first time he had ever slept on the floor. This was a pretty comfy rug though. There were two dressers and a nightstand with the ringing rotary phone and a cell phone on top of it. He took a few steps forward, still trying to process everything, simultaneously realizing he should answer the phone and the phone ceasing its constant ringing.

CRACK! The light bulb shattered, bathing the room in darkness. Larry screamed, pressing himself against the opposite wall. A few moments of silence passed. Nothing moved. Nothing happened. He let out a breath, starting to walk towards the nightstand.

The cell phone started ringing now.

He looked around, listening for the sign of anyone coming to answer it. Everything was quiet. Not a sound besides the ring of the phone.

He walked over to it, picking it up and flipping it open. "Hello?"

There was a raspy rattling, almost like someone was trying to breathe but had waterlogged lungs. When there had been silence for long enough that he was about to say hello again, there was a long sigh, and then, _"Even in death, the salt remains._" The voice had a dead, monotone quality about it, as if it had been expelled in a groan rather than breath.

"Uh, what? Hello?" But the dial tone had already returned, the caller gone.

Larry shut the phone, looking over his shoulder in paranoia. Where was this place? What did he mean, "the salt remains"?

What was going on?

He went to the door, testing the lock. The door swung open, almost of its own accord, and he crept out, looking around. It was still dark, but he could make out a door at the end of the hall. "Hello?" he called out, opening it.

It was a bathroom, complete with a toilet and shower. Tentatively, he flushed the toilet, a little surprised when it actually flushed, and perhaps more unnerved by that than normal. The sink worked too, though the shower didn't. He turned to leave, pausing when something moved to his left. He turned, looking out the window, when—

"DON'T IGNORE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

A man's face was pressed against the glass, though it was colorless and twisted into a horrifying scream. The hairbuns on the sides of his head were extended into long spirals, also white. In fact, the man was entirely white.

"Not another one!" Larry shouted, tripping as he ran out of the room and down the hallway. He didn't stop until he reached a closed door at the end of the L-shaped hallway, pulling at it in panic. The lock rattled, but didn't break.

Footsteps echoed behind him. Larry turned, coming face-to-face with yet another ghost, this one with a bowl of noodles overturned on his head. "Don't go in there," he growled, and before Larry could do anything, the man attacked, wrapping his hands around Larry's neck.

He thrashed, trying to get away from noodlebowl man, finally breaking the hold and gasping for air. He cowered against the door and the man vanished, leaving Larry alone and confused.

The door clicked, swinging open on its own again, and Larry darted inside, hoping for a respite. There was a short staircase, and it was dark, but he could see a flashlight in the dim light from the attic window. He turned it on and waved it around, lighting the boxes and the few dolls populating the room. He went to the nearest one, realizing as he came closer that it looked quite familiar. A short, portly nun in full robes reminiscent of Maya's. He picked it up, realizing too late that it was made of noodles. Slimy, cold noodles, stiff from the salt congealing on the surface. The base, made of plastic, had the inscription, "_To my darling Bikini."_

Bikini. The nun from that mountain. Why was there a noodle doll of her in this house?

Seriously. Who was so obsessed with the jolly woman that they made a doll of noodles in her likeness? The more he thought about it, the more his stomach churned.

"I can't do this," he muttered, beginning to back out of the room. "No way no way no way. Let me out of here." He fled back to the bedroom, perching on the side of the bed. "What's going on here?" he asked, glancing around warily. "I want to go home. Please, just tell me how to get home."

The cell phone rang.

He picked it up, almost disbelieving that the answer could be so easy.

"_They will never betray. They will always be loyal."_ It was the same voice as before, rasping and growling. And, he realized, the same voice as the noodlebowl guy who had attacked him earlier. He screamed, dropping the cell phone.

On one of the dressers, something rattled and gave off a series of high-pitched giggles.

He screamed again, running back to the attic. Nothing bad had happened here yet. Nothing had chased him or popped up and tried to kill him, and yes, the Bikini doll was creepy, but it was tolerable as long as he didn't touch it.

He moved through the stacks of boxes, trying to find a chair or something to sit on and wait it out, eventually coming to a sliding canvas door. He opened it a crack, finding that something was blocking it from opening any farther, and peeked inside.

Oh god. Oh no. There was a man sprawled on the floor, three lines of red glowing like a beacon in the dark. Was he dead? Maybe he was just sleeping, Larry attempted to justify to himself, just too tired to go down to the bedroom. All of the creepy phone calls, all of the people, they weren't here for him, but for the sleeping man. He opened his mouth, shining his flashlight inside in an attempt to wake the man, but something fell behind him before he could. He whipped around, his light darting around the room until it fell on the single doll head on the ground. "Is that it?" he asked, laughing at himself. "I guess I just need to calm dow—"

High-pitched giggles erupted from behind him.

He stepped back, whipping around to see salt dolls crowded at the cracked door, rattling as they filled the small open crevice. He blinked, already starting to back away, and suddenly, noodles shot out, wrapping around the walls and shooting towards him.

He didn't need an invitation. He ran, hands cartwheeling out in front of him as he threw open the door and tried to shine the flashlight in front of him. The bathroom. The ghost was outside of the bathroom, pressed against the glass. It couldn't get in. He would be safe there. He would be safe—

Noodlebowl man shot up in front of him, hands wrapping around his throat again.

Nonononononononononono. This couldn't be happening. He had to get out of here. Had to get out of this house. What about his secret admirer? He would never find out who it was or why she had sent him that heart-shaped jewel . . .

The thought brought on a surge of adrenaline, and he got a hand between noodlebowl man's elbows, breaking the choke. The man vanished, and Larry rounded the corner, stopping short when he realized the door for the bathroom had completely vanished.

Two options. Go back and face the noodles or get phone calls and deal with rattling doll heads.

He chose the latter.

He slammed the door shut behind him, panting. The beam of the flashlight showed that he was alone, and he sank down to the floor. Talk about crazy. All of this, all of the ghosts and the dolls and the phone calls.

Speaking of phone calls, something was ringing.

He hesitated, looking at the cell phone in his hand, but it was silent. No, this was the rotary phone on the bedside table again.

He could just not answer. There had been a lot of weird stuff so far related to the telephones, and he wasn't really excited for his next chat with Noodlebowl man. Then again, the weird chats could be exclusive to the cell phone (which he had resolved to never pick up again; it didn't matter if the weird stuff was with him or the unconscious/sleeping dude, he didn't want to hear about it anymore). And it could be something good on the other line. Maybe his secret admirer was calling with the way out of this place.

He picked up the phone.

There was a soft giggle, not completely unlike the dolls', but gentler and more feminine. _"Gotcha."_

"Huh?" And then his brain completely caught up with his mouth. "Hey babe. You sound pretty. Maybe you and I—"

There was another of the girlish giggles, this time not over the phone but right behind him.

He turned, dropping the phone. Behind him was a woman, young and beautiful, with her hair in braids like a halo and a beatific smile. Butterflies fluttered around her, moving with her even as she took a few steps towards him. He swallowed the lump that was suddenly in his throat. "You, uh, are you an angel? 'Cause I think Heaven's missing one."

She shook her head, the smile still on her face. With her right hand, she held out the black magatama he'd woken without. "I think you're missing this."

His eyes widened. "You're my secret admirer?"

The woman took a few more steps towards him, until they were nearly nose-to-nose. "Yes. And believe me, we'll be together forever now." Her fingers closed around the magatama and suddenly, disembodied hands rose up out of the ground and moved towards him.

"W—Wait! Huh? What's going—?" The hands grasped his arms and legs, pulling him back against the wall as noodles started invading the room. They ran over his neck, reaching his face and smothering him with cold, slimy, salt-crusted noodles. He screamed, hoping that someone, anyone would come save him. The noodles invaded his mouth, and with a final wail, his lungs emptied of their remaining air. His body spasmed, hand dropping the flashlight, but resistance was futile.

The last thing he remembered was the sound of the rotary phone ringing mixed with the woman's soft, tinkling laughter.

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><p><strong>AN: **

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**Hey guys! Sooo I didn't write this:D. But we figured that since my chapters won't be showing up for a while it wouldn't hurt to note in a little early. Enjoying our cruel story thus far? Or I guess Canta's cruel story:/. Maybe I can help clarify a few things. For those of you who haven't played Calling (and I'm sure many haven't), this is NOT going to be in chronological order just yet. That may sound weird-and come to think of it, the Shin (Larry) chapter always seemed kind of unnecessary to me-but it's sort of used to set the tone. In our case it's used to show that, while this is still full of amusing cameos and comical moments (did you recognize everyone?) it's actually a dark story and it doesn't get lighter until the VERY end! I say "VERY" because, well, stick around;). Can't spoil anymore. There's at least one more chapter before I make my debut in this story. Only hint I'll give for that is that Godot fans should definitely stick around!**

**Melody Canta ::**

**Thank god for having a co-author who is a decent beta reader. Otherwise we might have had some very interesting things in this chapter and the next. Most related to the non-chronological order of this chapter. As Shikola mentioned, this isn't necessarily in chronological order, but I believe that this chapter and the next are the only two where there is an inconsistency (and you'll see it as soon as you read the next chapter. Believe me, while playing the game, I was lost for a while too). I'll point it out in the next chapter's author's note, in case you somehow missed it.  
><strong>

**As Shikola sort of implied, this story started out in a very different place from where it's ending up. Originally it was going to be comical, but, uh, our natural inclinations towards angst and drama came out, I guess. So, while it'll still have some humor, it's going to be dark, dark, dark, dark, DARK. No worries though, right? We're still working to make sure it's enjoyable.  
><strong>

**And we want to know what characters you recognize! Please tell us! I'm worried we're not giving enough context for some!**

**Anyways, next chapter is still mine. Sigh. I can't guarantee it being ridiculously fast, because The Awakening is a LONG chapter. But I'll have it up as soon as possible.**

**Read and Review?**


	3. The Awakening

**Chapter Two :: The Awakening**

Indistinct images flashed across her mind, quick and defined by nothing more than color and broad shapes. A snowy mountain. A dagger. A paper napkin.

And blood.

Maya shot up, panting heavily. Her hand clutched at the front of her robe, eventually relaxing over her heart as she realized it hadn't been real. "That dream . . . I haven't had that one for a while." More than seven years had passed since Misty Fey's death, and the nightmares had all but stopped a few years ago. She wiped at the sweat beading up on her forehead. She'd just get a glass of water and then go back to bed—

This wasn't the Wright Anything Agency. Where was she?

She stood, glancing around. It was a classroom, she supposed, with the blackboards on the walls and tables placed in meticulously straight rows. In the back of the room, there was a baby grand piano and a drum set. She walked closer, squinting in the dark, and tapped on the snare tentatively. It rattled, but otherwise acted like a drum would normally act.

The piano was a different story. She plucked at a few keys, but something didn't sound right (not that she was an expert; Mia had once tried to teach her to play piano, but it hadn't amounted to much more than irritation for both parties). She hammered on the same one a few times.

It played different notes. On the same key. She might have been a beginner at playing piano, but she was almost certain that was a logical impossibility.

Still, it was kind of cool.

She played the two songs she knew (chopsticks and Mary Had a Little Lamb), thrilled when they sounded far different from what she was used to. And then she started playing random keys for the fun of it. Nick would get a kick out of this. If only she knew where she was, she'd take him to see it sometime. Besides, he couldn't sound much worse playing this one than he normally did.

The light switch was on the opposite side of the piano, so she skirted the instrument after deciding she couldn't derive much more enjoyment from it and flicked the indicator.

No light. The power must be out. A shiver ran up her spine at the thought. Unfamiliar place, no power . . . talk about creepy.

Priority number one: find a light.

There didn't seem to be much else in this classroom other than a guitar in a glass case. She pulled on the strings a few times until one snapped. After that, it seemed like a good idea to get out of there. After all, she didn't want to be found in there with the guitar string still in her hand.

She'd no sooner opened the door than music began playing in the hallway. The tune was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. What she did know was that if music was playing, someone else had to have been playing it, which meant someone else had to be there. Maya moved towards the noise, seeing a blinking green light on the floor. "A cell phone?" she asked, picking it up and examining it. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it other than the fact that it was still ringing. She flipped it open and put it up to her ear. "Hello?"

"HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Maya yelped and moved the phone away. Who shouted over the phone?

"YOU HAVE MY PHONE, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! I'm coming to get it. O-k-a-y?" Whoever it was seemed to have multiple personality disorder, because they had gone from screaming to cutesy in no time at all. Before she could answer, the other person hung up.

"Uh, sounds good," she said weakly, flipping the phone closed and looking around. It seemed she wasn't alone here, which was a bit of a relief. This school was creepy. And dark. Besides, if they got separated, it would be easy enough to find this other person. All they would have to do was shout and it was doubtful there would be anywhere she couldn't hear it from.

Of course, there was a problem in the logic the other person had presented. If they were planning on getting their phone, they needed to know where Maya was. She looked at the call log, but it was mysteriously empty. Luckily, the other person solved the problem for her. The phone rang again.

"I'm on the first floor. In the hallway. I'M COMING TO GET MY PHONE, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

"Should, I, uh, come to y—" The clicking noise of the other person hanging up again made her cut off. Maybe whoever it was knew where they had left their phone originally or something.

Besides, it wasn't like she really knew where she was. Maybe all of the classrooms in this school had pianos and drum sets. She'd never know if she didn't look.

She'd only taken a few steps when the phone rang again.

"I'm at the staircase LANDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! On. The. Second. Floor." Once again the person hung up before Maya could say anything.

"Honestly, what's the point of calling when you don't wait for the other person to say anything back?" she asked herself rhetorically before sighing and taking a few more steps.

_Yip yip yip yip yip. Yip yip._

Was there a dog somewhere? Maya entered the classroom on her left, which looked as normal as any other classroom she'd ever seen: desks, blackboards, little cubbies for belongings . . .

And a little dog.

"Yip yip yip! HELLO!"

Apparently the dog talked.

It was a cute little thing, a Pomeranian if she wasn't mistaken, with caramel colored fur and big black eyes. It ran around her in circles, finally standing on its hind legs to paw at her knees. "Well, aren't you a cutie? What's your name?" she asked, kneeling down to scratch the pup on its head.

"HELLO! I'm Missile!"

So she hadn't been delusional. He could speak.

Interesting . . .

"Hello." She tried to pick him up, but put him back down when he squirmed. "What are you doing in a place like this?"

"Saying hello!" Obviously. What had she been thinking?

Maya nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but the cell phone rang again before she could. "Just one second, okay?"

Missile started barking as soon as the other person started talking (presumably to say hello to them as well), but Maya could still hear the "I'm on the staircase on the third floor! I'm coming, so don't m-o-v-e, okay?"

This time, she didn't wait to be hung up on. "Okay, Missile. Want to meet a new friend?"

"Of course! I just love to say HELLO to everyone!" The little dog started to hop around and yip to prove his enthusiasm, and Maya sighed. Forget the mystery person on the other end of the line; there was no way she could lose Missile with the incessant barking. Besides, he'd come find her eventually just to say hello.

"Do you know where the staircase is?"

"Ummmmmmm . . . no!"

They could at least try to find it, if nothing else. "Okay, let's go."

Together, the spirit medium and the dog walked down the hallway. Maya noted three more classrooms and a bathroom before they saw the glowing green stair sign as the path came to a T. The stairs were just around the corner, and Maya made an attempt to go towards them, but Missile bounded down the hall and started barking at a nearby door. "Missile? Did you find something?"

The door he was barking at was beat up. White paint had been gouged by something sharp to reveal the underlying wood in places. There was a crack that widened into a hole at the bottom, but it wasn't big enough for either Maya or Missile to fit through. The frosted glass window was broken at a corner, force causing long tendrils of damage to radiate from the hole. Some sort of weird blue light emanated from inside.

"HELLO! HELLO!" Missile shouted between yips.

Someone had to be in there.

Maya pulled on the handle, but the door was locked, so she peered into the hole in the glass instead.

It was just as dark inside the room as the rest of the school, but somehow, she could still see two people clearly. They seemed to glow white with a supernatural force, defining their school uniforms. The man, tall and broad-shouldered, held something long and thin in his left arm. The girl—or at least she assumed it was a girl—had a cardboard box over half of her body, and a skirt on the other half. They were talking about something, but it was too quiet for her to hear. And then, before her eyes, they started to fade. She blinked, and it was like they had never been there at all.

She moved, changing her view of the room when—

Two white, beady eyes popped in front of her view, the white cardboard box blocking the rest of the hole. She screamed, stepping back as Missile continued to bark.

And that was when she realized there was heavy breathing behind her. The barking suddenly stopped, and she glanced over to where the small dog had been, but he was nowhere to be found. "Missile?" she asked, turning slowly.

A small but thin man was behind her, looking just as opaque as the students in the classroom. He wore a school uniform, but also a headband and apron that were stained with some sort of splattered liquid. "MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! That's my p-h-o-n-e." He waggled his finger as he spelled out "phone," and then he tackled her.

She fell hard, her back slamming against the tile floor. The man had taken hold of her arms, using them to drag her back up.

With a move she'd learned from Athena, she punched him square in the nose. The minute he'd careened back and disappeared, she ran.

She'd made it almost to the music room when he appeared in front of her again. He rushed at her, knocking her down. He was saying something, but the sound of blood pulsing in her ears made it impossible for her to say what. She knocked him off of her within seconds, and he vanished again.

The cell phone in her hand vibrated. She flipped it open, still running down the hall. There was a picture of the green stair sign. Maybe Missile had gone down there. Or maybe there was something that would keep her safe. A katana, for instance.

She was only feet away from the stairs when the man attacked again, but she was ready for him this time. As soon as he ran at her, she stepped to the side, sprinting for the stairs. She rounded the second set, hearing his panting behind her, and . . .

He vanished from the stairway.

She breathed a sigh of relief, sinking down on the bottom step.

Ghosts. That was what she had seen and had attacked her. There were ghosts in this school.

So why was she here?

Maybe this was all a nightmare. She pinched herself. No luck. She was stuck here until she could find the exit.

There was a "3" painted on the stairwell door, so she supposed she must be on the third floor. That meant that the music room had to have been on the fourth floor. Maybe, if she could get to the first floor, the entrance would be open and she would find herself back on the streets of Los Angeles.

But what if this was one of those weird buildings where the entrance wasn't on the first floor, but on the second or third? Or, magatama forbid, the fourth?

She'd summon Mia. Mia would know what to do.

Maya closed her eyes, reaching out to the world of the dead for her sister. Nothing happened. She couldn't even persuade her soul to leave her body. For now, her channeling powers were on the fritz, something that hadn't happened since she was a teenager.

No help for her. Even Missile was gone. She was alone.

But she couldn't dwell on that! Pearly was coming tomorrow, so she had to get home for her little cousin's sake. She stood, walking into the third floor hallway. If she was going to get out of here, the first thing that she needed to do was get familiar with the territory. Besides, maybe if she looked hard enough, she might find something to scare off those ghosts.

Turning left and beginning down the corridor, it wasn't long before she came across another door glowing with a blue light. Despite the logical part of her brain reminding her about what had happened last time she'd come across a lit door, she was a spirit medium, and her sixth sense was strong. There was something absent in the air, something different, something that wasn't . . . threatening.

She pulled at the door, unsurprised that it was locked too. Of course this couldn't be easy. There was a sign next to the door, but even when she peered at it from millimeters away, there still wasn't enough light for her to read it.

Priority one: Unchanged. Find a light, and soon.

Priority two: Figure out what the sign said.

A familiar shout made her turn her head, and she could see a door open in the light from the stair sign. It slammed shut, the noise reverberating all the way down the hall.

The ghosts hadn't seemed to bother with doors, so she figured it had to be pretty safe. She walked to it. She could hear the muttering even from outside, and it was obvious who was inside now that she could hear his speech. "Gotta be brave. Gotta get back out there. What if my secret admirer is out there? WHAT IF I GOTTA GO SAVE HER?"

She entered the bathroom and knocked on the only closed stall. "Larry?"

He squealed. It was a very girly, high-pitched squeal, one that she'd never actually heard him make. "Why does this keep happening to meeeeeee? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?"

"Larry, open the door!" She rattled the handle, but it only served to make him scream again as he repeated, "Whyyyyyy? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?"

Maya sized up the door. It wasn't one of those cheap plastic ones, but an honest-to-goodness _door_, complete with a real handle. Talk about a fancy bathroom. Unfortunately, that meant that she didn't have a chance in hell at breaking it down and getting inside. She rattled the door again. "It's Maya! Open the door!"

"Think happy thoughts! Think happy thoughts! Think happy—AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed again as Maya threw herself against the door.

"LARRY!" she shouted. He screamed back something unintelligible.

"You know what? Fine! I'll be outside, trying to figure out what's going on!" she shouted, although it only made him squeal again. She slammed the door on her way out and was rewarded with a sob of terror.

She had to feel bad for him. He was alone, and his experience with ghosts had to have been mostly through her. But if he wasn't willing to even come out of the bathroom, she would have to press on without him.

She was still walking down the hall, missing Missile's company, when something cracked. "Who's there?" she asked, backing up against a wall. _Please not the apron guy, please not the apron guy._

Something clicked, and a small cylinder of light dispelled the darkness near her feet.

A flashlight. Thank Ami, it was a flashlight. She could _see_!

It had rolled under some benches (she assumed so, anyways; it had to have fallen from somewhere), so she got on her hands and knees to pick it up, rising again once it was in her grasp.

Light. She was happier about this measly flashlight than she had been when Mia had given her that Steel Samurai DVD set for Christmas years ago.

She waved it around a bit, examining her surroundings. On her left was the set of benches under some _very _dark windows. She moved towards them, pressing her face against the pane. Nothing. She couldn't see anything; not a playground, not even a road. It was like the outside didn't exist at all, and this building merely existed in some sort of nightmare world.

On her right were classrooms. The signs said 2-3 and 2-4 respectively, but both were locked.

But hey, now she could check priority one off the list; she'd found a light.

New priority one: read that sign.

She walked back down the hallway, ignoring Larry's muttering as she walked past the bathroom. The placard next to the glowing door said "Computer Lab". No wonder there was something lit up inside; a computer was probably on. Maya redirected the flashlight beam towards the paper sign on the window. "If this door is locked, see the janitor," she read aloud.

It was doubtful that she'd find the janitor (or find him alive, at least), but if she was looking for a key, it would likely be in his office. There was only one problem with that: where was the janitor's office?

She walked back down the hall for consistency's sake, making sure she hadn't missed anything important in the dark. She could imagine Mia's advice even if her sister wasn't there: _be thorough and don't miss anything_. Unfortunately, other than the bathroom, she only found the locked classrooms 2-1 and 2-2.

As she rounded the corner, the cell phone rang. She picked it up without thinking.

There was a girlish giggle on the other end, followed by, "I've found a new friend. It's time to play."

The line went dead. She glanced back towards the bathroom and froze. The three ghosts were walking away from her, oddly enough, but she didn't realize what they were doing until the tall one opened the door to the bathroom.

Larry was the new friend.

She could hear his strangled scream from halfway down the hall.

Some rational part of her brain stopped her from running after them. She wasn't exactly an amateur at dealing with ghosts, and she knew that without something to banish them, she wasn't going to be any help. For Larry's sake, she needed to find a way out, fast.

Time to pick up the pace.

She didn't find anything else on the third floor, so she took the first staircase she saw down to the second floor. This floor also seemed mostly empty. In Classroom 1-6, she found a magazine lying open on a desk. Hunching over the desk, clutching the flashlight, she began to read.

* * *

><p><span><em>Death of Three Students Rocks Themis Law School<em>

_The death of three students has jeopardized the future of the esteemed Themis Law Academy. The school, known for producing legal legends such as Klavier Gavin, has been ruled as safe, but that doesn't keep scared parents from removing their children from the program._

_The three students, all in their final year at the Academy, were found unconscious in the computer lab by another student. They were taken to the hospital, but none recovered consciousness and all three eventually died. The hospital reported that the cause of death was unknown, and the toxicology report showed no drugs or poisons on the victims, The school has been reopened, though enrollment has dropped by 25%. Current director of the Prosecutor program, Nathaniel Price, has commented that although what happened was a tragedy, the education of students must continue._

_The names of the victims have not yet been released to the public._

* * *

><p>It couldn't be a coincidence. Three students, three ghosts; these had to be the same.<p>

Unfortunately, while this was interesting, it was hardly useful. She could hardly sit there and wave the newspaper at them, and the article hadn't been specific enough to tell her what had happened. She needed to move on and find something that she could help Larry with.

She stopped in the bathroom, on the off chance that Larry had stumbled upon something useful (but she wasn't holding her breath). Everything seemed normal enough, until she stepped into a stall and the door slammed behind her.

There was someone breathing. Above her.

Hesitantly, she looked up, preparing to fight for her life again. There was someone peeking over the edge of the stall, his dark hair poofing up in all directions. His eyes were small and slanted, yellow irises seeming to pierce into her soul. She backed against the wall as he climbed higher, revealing the rest of his face. "Do you have a . . . hairtie? . . . I lost my hairtie," he breathed out, though the speech was slow and tortured.

And then he disappeared, just like the others.

Maya clutched at her magatama, willing her heart to slow down after her most recent scare. After another moment, the door gave a loud click and swung wide open.

Time to be done with this floor. Like, _now_.

Only one of the staircases was open, so she took that one down to the first floor. At the bottom, a black cat meowed at her and took off to the left.

A cat now? '_Is this a school or a menagerie?_' she wondered, but it was alive, and Missile had at least been a companion, so she followed it.

It led her past a few rooms, but darted into a locker bay. The lockers were thrown wide open, some of them revealing shoes or other belongings. There was one pair of high heels studded with onigiri on the toes that she contemplated putting on, but nixed the idea when she realized they would be hell to run in.

The cat, now out of sight, meowed again. Maya moved past the shoes and found the cat at a closed door.

"Open it," it said, and she jumped.

"You can talk too?!"

He tilted his head. "What other talking cat have you seen?"

"Not a cat, a dog. His name was Missile."

The cat purred. "Missile's here too, huh? Well, the more the merrier. Open the door."

She did. Only to be met with a swirling purple vortex. At first glance, it seemed far away and nothing was between it and her. Absolute nothingness. She pointed the flashlight in all directions, but it never hit any walls. There was literally nothing in the room. "W—What is—?"

"Huh. That wasn't supposed to happen." The cat glanced around. "Maybe I got the wrong room?"

Maya gulped and stared into the abyss. "Am I supposed to go in there?"

"Why would you do that?" the cat asked, sounding alarmed. It brushed past her feet to sit between her and the door. "Does it even look _remotely_ safe?"

"Not exactly."

"I thought so," the cat said. "What does the sign say?"

"Um, coatroom?"

"Yep, wrong room. That's what I get for not being able to read." With a swish of the tail, the door slammed shut. The cat skittered off across the tile and disappeared around the corner.

"Hey, wait!" She ran after it, but it had somehow vanished.

Talk about strange. Giant swirling abysses concealed behind doors, ghosts in a school, and animals that could talk.

There wasn't much more anyone could throw at her that would surprise her.

The library was the last door at the end of this hall before she reached a quite conspicuous dead end, so she looked into it first. It looked normal enough; there were rows of bookshelves and at the end of the room was a librarian's desk. She was about to exit when the newspaper caught her eye.

* * *

><p><span><em>Mysterious Deaths Continue<em>

_The death of former cartoon genius Sal Manella has added one more to the list of mysterious deaths that have happened in the last month. Manella, 46, was found unconscious at an Internet Café. According to sources near the victim, Manella was doing research for a recent animation project, _The Golden Samurai_, that was slated to the the next big television show for 2029._

_The mysterious deaths have included a local hairdresser, a business man, and three students from Themis Law Academy. All of the victims were found unconscious and none regained consciousness before their deaths. Police have been unable to identify a link between the six victims, and no toxins or poisons have been identified._

_If you have any information, please contact your local police station._

* * *

><p>Maya covered her mouth in shock. There was no way she could have missed this. No way at all. How could Sal Manella—<em>the<em> Sal Manella—have died? And how could she have missed it?

She took a short moment to mourn the death of a legend before pressing on. She had to find the Janitor's Office. Or a way out.

She exited the library, running her hands over every inch of wall she could reach at the dead end, but there seemed to be no hidden switch or a door that lead anywhere, so she backtracked towards the stairs, still reading every sign. She passed the staircase, and the first door on the right said "Janitor's Office."

"Now we're talking," Maya said to herself, stepping inside. The Janitor's Office was dark and sparsely decorated, though it did have a fridge that she took a soda from. There was a safe next to the door with a keypad barring the entrance, and she put in a few random four-digit combinations (including 0000), but none of them opened it.

There were two desks pushed into an L-shape, and on top of the nearest one was a scrap of paper that she had to squint to read the chicken scratch handwriting. "Calendar + day" was all that was written on it. She looked up, looking around for a desk calendar, before realizing that a large one had been pinned to the wall. It was the month of September, and between all of the days, someone had written addition signs. After Saturday, there was an equals sign, and then the total for all of the weeks except for the 22nd through 28th, which was underlined in red ink.

It didn't take a genius to add up the numbers. She found a calculator in the other desk drawer and quickly added up the sum. 175. She penciled that in with an equals sign at the end of the week.

Was this supposed to be the safe combination? She added up the weekly sums, totaling 465, but that still wasn't enough digits. She entered 0465 into the keypad, but it refused to open.

The zero at the front of the combination had her thinking though. She entered in 0175 for the week she'd originally added up, and the light lit up green, blinked a few times, and something beeped, the door finally swinging open.

Genius. That's what she was. A complete genius.

There was a key labeled "Computer Lab" on a keyring, so she took that one and set back on a path towards the staircase. She took the stairs up to the third floor, the computer lab right in front of the stairs. The blue light was still there, which she took to be a good sign. She unlocked the door with the key she'd just obtained and entered.

Most of the computers were off, but there was one in the middle of the room that was brightly lit. Maya walked over to it, sitting in the chair so that she could scroll up and down the text page that was up.

* * *

><p><em>Conversation: Group Chat (7)<em>

_Maya Fey: OMG HI GUYS_

_Phoenix Wright: Think you've done it this time?_

_Miles Edgeworth: Who is this?_

_Maya Fey: Really, Edgeworth? You don't remember me? You're never getting a Christmas present from me ever again. D: Especially not a Limited Edition Steel Samurai figurine._

_..._

* * *

><p>She jerked back from the screen, eyes wide. How could this be on the computer? <em>How<em>? It had been a text message between friends, and to her knowledge, had never been uploaded onto a computer. Could that even happen?

She read through their conversation again, her eyes pausing over the anonymous messages. _You will all suffer. I will take my revenge._ Was it possible—

No, of course not. No one could summon ghosts to them, let alone transport people into the spirit world.

At the bottom of the page, there were two phone numbers: 997-684-771 and 997-657-281. She took out her phone, half-wondering whether she should call them.

A telltale wail cut through the silence, and suddenly, the door to the computer lab opened, slamming shut as Larry collapsed against the door. The three ghosts ran past the window, and he sighed in relief, his eyes finally falling on Maya.

"Maya?"

"You finally got out of the bathroom, huh?"

He gave a nervous chuckle that phased into a full laugh after a moment. "You can't imagine how great it is to see you! I thought I was a goner."

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. What are you doing here?"

"I don't know either. I woke up here."

"I did too! Huh, I wonder where we are." Larry scratched the back of his head, seemingly calm now that he had an ally.

"So . . . you don't recognize this place?"

"Not a bit. Then again, I was always bad with places. But I feel like I would have remembered a place with, ah—" He cut off, unwilling to say the word.

"Ghosts?" Maya supplied.

"Yeah. Wonder what they want."

"Have you seen anyone else here?" she asked. Maybe Nick and the others were wandering around somewhere, but the hope was dashed as soon as Larry shook his head.

"Nope. You're the first one I've seen that doesn't look all white and stuff."

There went that idea. She motioned to the computer. "Do you know anything about text messages?"

He sat down at the computer. He was silent as he read through it before finally looking back at her. "This all feels familiar . . ."

She put her hands on her hips. "Obviously! Larry, we sent those messages earlier! Remember? We were at Nick's office—"

"Oh yeah! And then Athena put in the movies and . . . huh, I must have slept through them."

Maya thought back, but it was all fuzzy. "I don't remember watching them either, now that I think about it."

He stared at the numbers on the bottom of the chat. "I could swear those weren't a part of it though."

"No, I didn't think so either. I don't recognize either of the numbers, though, really, who knows phone numbers these days?" The hair on the back of Maya's neck suddenly prickled, and she tugged on Larry's sleeve. "Come on, let's get out of here."

He followed her, though admittedly, he looked confused, still looking towards the computer as she dragged him towards the door. His gasp made her pause.

"Nick?!"

Phoenix Wright was there, hunched in front of the computer. He stood suddenly, and Maya realized he was semi-opaque, color drained from his entire being. In other words, he was as ghostly as the the three students.

Larry gave a shriek, sprinting out into the corridor, but she stayed rooted to the spot. This was Nick, the guy who had always come through for her. He'd tried to cross a burning bridge for her for Ami's sake; if she couldn't trust him, who could she trust? Besides, he didn't seem to be interested in attacking her. He vanished, and she walked towards the computer. Everything was the same except for the last line of the chat.

_"I need to tell Edgeworth."_

"Tell Edgeworth what?" Maya asked aloud, hands on her hips. As if to respond, Phoenix suddenly appeared at the door and phased through it. "Wait!" she shouted, sprinting after him. He walked down the hallway, and she followed him dutifully down to the second floor. The room he entered said "Art Room," and despite the fact that she could have sworn that it was locked earlier, the door opened easily. Phoenix vanished again, and she decided to look around.

The Art Room was a large room featuring a sculpture of some woman with no arms and a ton of ceramic busts. There was a divider behind the sculpture, hiding most of the far half of the room. Maya stepped inside hesitantly, her sixth sense going off complete with flashing lights. Nick's sudden disappearance reminded her of Missile's when the students had attacked. She brandished the flashlight around the room, and something moved behind the divider.

"I thought you were a ghost," he said. He had her blinded with his flashlight, but he dropped it to the ground, adjusting his glasses. "Maya Fey?"

"Edgeworth?!" Her jaw dropped. "W—What are you doing here?!"

"I might ask you the same thing." He motioned to the table. "Here, sit. I'm sure we can sort all of this out."

She seated herself across from him, their flashlights sending a beam of light against the armless statue. "Have you seen Larry?"

He gave a snort, though something about it didn't seem like Edgeworth for some reason. Maya could have sworn she'd seen him do the same thing a million times, but something about the movement didn't seem authentic. "I take it you've seen him too."

"Just a minute ago. Do you know what's going on?"

Edgeworth shook his head. "According to Wright, we're stuck in some . . . place. I believe he called it—" he paused to shift through a stack of notebook papers, though again, something didn't seem quite right with the way he did it, "—the Mnemonic Abyss. And we can move through it by calling numbers on our cell phones. However, I'm very sure that this is all actually a dream and that I'll wake up as soon as possible." He crossed his arms over his chest.

Maya slammed her hands against the desk. "B—but Edgeworth! No! No, this isn't all a dream! It can't be a dream. There are ghosts here and I can't channel my sister, and," without warning, she launched into the story of what had happened to her since she had woken up in the music room.

He waited a moment after she was done and then shook his head. "No. I'm sorry, Miss Fey, but that is a ridiculous story. There is no such thing as ghosts, and, if indeed, this is not a dream, then it must be a very elaborate prank."

She wanted to scream in frustration. Why was everyone she met _so_ unhelpful? "Let's at least exchange numbers," she said, trying to compose her argument. She looked into the phone's information for the number she wrote down on a piece of paper and he slid her a piece with his. She wanted to argue more, and had just opened her mouth to do so when he gasped.

"Wright!"

She was barely able to turn around in time to see Nick running out of the room, Edgeworth trailing him, a furious look on his face, the door left wide open. Maya ran after them, but the door suddenly slammed shut as she approached.

She stumbled backwards, whirling around, only to come face-to-face with a woman she had never thought she would see again. "Dahlia?"

"Maya Fey." The woman gave a giggle, tilting her head and smiling angelically. White butterflies fluttered around her, but Maya wasn't fooled by the innocent demeanor. Dahlia Hawthorne was the worst of the worst; she had been responsible for Diego Armando's poisoning, her mother's murder, and Iris's guilt for so many years. "It's nice to see you again."

"What do you want?" Maya asked, her hand closing around her magatama reflexively.

Dahlia shook her head, flipping her hair over one pale shoulder. "It's not about what I want at all. It's about what you've done."

"Huh?" That caught her off guard. "What have _I_ done?"

"You killed her."

The words seemed to hang heavily in the air between them. Maya flinched, and then the anger started. How dare Dahlia accuse her of doing anything! She shook her head adamantly. "N—no! I didn't kill her. _You_ did."

The siren cocked a slender brow. "I haven't killed anyone."

"My mother! You killed my mother!" Maya said, taking a step forward.

"Oh, her?" Dahlia asked, sounding uninterested. She gave a sigh, twirling her parasol absentmindedly. "Not quite. Sorry, but you're the only murderer here." She took a few steps forward, and Maya went cold, backing up against the closed door. Dahlia's hands closed around her elbows and images flashed past Maya's vision again.

A snowy mountain.

A dagger.

_Blood._

Dahlia stepped back, her charming mask back in place. "See you again soon, Maya." With another giggle, she vanished.

Maya dropped to her knees, her head spinning. What had Dahlia meant? What was going on? Those images of Hazakura Temple and the training area that she kept seeing . . . what were they? She caught her breath and then turned around and opened the door. A flash blinded her momentarily, and as her eyes readjusted, she realized that the cardboard box girl was standing in front of her. "Wait right there! I'll go get my friends, and we'll have you on the front page in no time!"

"Oh nononononononononono! You don't have to do that! No, don't do that!" Maya shouted, lunging out the door, but the girl vanished, leaving her clutching at thin air.

_Meow._

Maya turned, seeing the black cat halfway down the hall again. She thought about following it until it brushed up against her leg, purring, and then scampered down the staircase. How could something so adorable be bad? She followed it down to the first floor.

It walked past the Janitor's Office to the hallway she'd left unexplored earlier. She passed the principal's office before the cat stopped in front of the nurse's office, mewling and scratching at the door. A terrified sob sounded from within, and Maya could guess who was inside. "Thanks, little guy," she said, petting his ears. He reveled in the attention before running off again. She opened the door.

The nurse's office was empty. Like, almost completely empty. Besides a small desk pushed up against the wall and two privacy dividers for hospital beds, the only things were little health reminders on signs pasted on the wall. _"Have safe sex!" _one said, and she decided that she could skip reading the rest of them. Larry was sprawled across the nearest hospital bed, his hands over his face. He seemed to be murmuring something to himself, and as she got closer, she could hear, "I just want to go home. I just want to go home."

"Larry?"

He stilled, sitting up. "Oh. Hey, Maya."

She perched on the side of the bed. "How are you holding up?" she asked, trying to impart some cheerfulness into her voice. If she could fake it for Pearly, she could fake it for Larry, right? It definitely sounded like he needed it.

He gave a high-pitched laugh. "Oh, fine. Just fine. You know, with the constant ghosts and all."

"I saw Edgeworth!"

"Like, as a ghost?"

She shook her head. "No! He's alive, like us."

This seemed to cheer him up immensely. "And if I know good ol' Edgey, he's got a plan, am I right?"

"Well, um," Maya tried to figure out a way to tell him that Edgeworth's plan consisted of waking up in his own bed and laughing about it over breakfast without seeming too pessimistic about it. "I think he's just gathering information at this point. Like, that, um . . . oh! We can use our cell phones to transport places!" Edgeworth had mentioned it in passing, but it had to mean something, coming from Edgeworth.

Larry blinked a few times. "Ex-squeeze me?"

"Like, if you call a phone number, I guess it'll send you to the location that the other phone is in." Theoretically, at least.

Larry leaped out of the bed, a grin wide on his face. "So, I just dial a phone number, right?"

"Right."

A cell phone was in his hand instantly, and he was dialing numbers before she could even process what was happening. "W—wait, Larry!" she tried to say, but he'd hit the send button and held the phone to his ear as she tried to stop him. The cell phone clattered to the floor, and she could hear him scream, but she blinked and he was gone. Completely vanished.

Edgeworth had been right.

She glanced down at her own cell phone. There were a lot of people she could call, but now that she was thinking it through, she couldn't seem to remember a single number. Besides, it wasn't like she knew where she'd be transported to even if she had called. What if whoever she called had been in danger at the time, and she found herself in a worse situation? Or, what if they were like Nick? Could she even call his number?

Larry's cell phone was on the floor, and she picked it up and shoved it in her pocket. It might come in handy, especially if she finally transported somewhere that didn't have a cell phone. Theoretically, she'd always be able to get out.

She had just exited the nurse's office when her cell phone rang. It could very well be the ghost . . . or it could be Edgeworth, now that he had her number. She picked up. "Hello?"

"Maya."

"Edgeworth!"

She could hear him clear his throat on the other end of the line. "Are you holding up okay?" he asked awkwardly.

"Yeah. And I just saw Larry. He, um, transported somewhere else. I don't know where. But he left his cell phone."

"It seems as though we leave our cell phone every time we teleport. You might want to consider transporting soon too; it, erm, seems to be rather dangerous around here."

He could say that again. "I'll leave soon. What about you?"

"There's a few more things that I want to check on first. After you teleport, I won't be able to contact you. Will you be alright?"

_More alright than you seem to be,_ she thought ruefully, but nodded instead. "I'll be fine."

"Stay safe, Maya. Hopefully we wake up soon."

"Hopefully," she seconded, and then hung up. She'd no sooner put the cell phone back in the pocket of her robe when the notification noise went off. She pulled it out to see a picture of the broken door on the fourth floor in a text message. The sender was anonymous, but the message was clear. Something was in there, and she wanted to know what it was. Besides, the last time she'd received a text message like this, it had guided her towards the stairs during the ghost attack. She had a guardian angel operating somewhere. Maybe it was Mia, she tried, hoping to comfort herself. The thought did make her feel better.

Yeah, that was what she'd go with. Mia was sending her the text messages. Not some weird, creepy ghost thing waiting to lure her into danger.

She headed back towards the stairwell, making a quick detour when she heard a phone ringing in the Janitor's Office. Wait, how could there be a rotary phone ringing when the electricity was out?

She stepped inside the room, still not quite surprised when there was no one in there. She picked up the phone, holding it to her ear.

_"Mother?"_ The voice was Pearl's. Maya had heard her call Morgan a million times, and every time, it was the same. _"When are you coming back? I just, I—I'm lonely. Ever since, well . . . you know . . ." _There was a quiet sob, and Maya pressed the phone more snugly against her ear, heartbroken. _"I just want to see you. I'll be a good girl, and I'll train every day. Come visit me soon, please. I love you._" The call ended, and Maya set the phone down, tearing up. Poor Pearly. Though, what had she been talking about? Ever since what?

What had made Pearly so lonely?

She shook it off. There wasn't much she could do until she got home, and then she'd spoil her favorite little cousin until Pearly didn't know what had hit her. Until then, Mia was leading her around. She checked the text message again before setting back on the path to the fourth floor.

The door was still locked when she got to it, and she rattled it to see if she could break it down. Nope, it stayed firm. She got on her hands and knees, peering through the crack in the door and got an idea.

She checked the number on Larry's cell phone and dialed it into her own before throwing it inside of the room through the crack. She took a deep breath and then pressed the send button.

Everything faded around her, going black, and she instinctively shut her eyes. When she opened them again, she was inside of the classroom, Larry's phone next to her feet.

It had worked.

There was a glowing white light in the middle of the room, and Maya walked over to it, surprised when it didn't vanish. She could hear muted voices mumbling, but when she got closer, the voices got quieter.

The cell phone, still on the floor, vibrated. Maya walked back to it, surprised when there was a picture of the Record symbol on the screen. She brought the phone back over to where the voices were the strongest and pressed the record button. After a few seconds, it automatically began to play back.

_"Did you hear about the guy at the Internet Cafe?"_

_"Yeah. I bet he died from playing too many video games."_

_"Probably. Though it says he was a cartoon person, so maybe it was watching too many cartoons online."_

_"Whatever. Creepy stuff. Besides, a grown man alone in a private internet room? There's not much of a question about what's going on there."_

The recording cut off, and Maya wrinkled her nose. Gossip. Hardly any useful information. She put the phone back into her pocket and investigated the room further. There had been something radiating blue light, but she couldn't see anything lit here. She turned on the flashlight.

There was nothing special about this classroom. Thirty desks, all neatly in their rows. Dark windows that she couldn't see out of. There was a magazine perched on one desk, and she shone the light on it. It was an old edition of _Oh! Cult!_ magazine advertising Hazakura Temple. In fact, it looked really familiar, though Maya had been reading the magazine for the past ten years, so that wasn't surprising. There was a picture of Sister Bikini and someone else, but their face was covered up by a giant phone number written in red.

_997-494-582_

Maya didn't recognize the number, but there didn't seem to be much else in here and Edgeworth had recommended she go somewhere else. She pulled out her phone when she heard the voice behind her.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN?"

Oh no, not him again. Please, not him.

The boy in the painter's smock was back, flanked by the woman hiding in the cardboard box and the tall boy she'd seen earlier. Except, she was pretty sure the taller boy hadn't had something on his hands before. And whatever it was, smeared all over the tall object he was carrying, it looked a lot like blood.

Box girl hopped up, and another flash emitted from her hands. This time, Maya realized it was a camera. "You haven't stayed to see your scoop published!"

"That's okay," Maya mumbled, taking a few steps back. "I, uh, I don't need to-"

"I haven't shown you my genius yet," the taller boy said, getting closer.

They were closing in on her. And then she blinked, and the painter's smock boy tackled her.

She took out four desks as she fell, trying desperately to shake him off. The punch she landed hit him in the middle of the chest, but it was hard enough to make him jerk back so that she could find her footing again. Unfortunately, she hadn't realized the cardboard box inching up behind her until it rammed her in the back of the knees, making her fall backwards. The cell phone fell from her pocket, bouncing across the tile floor.

The phone. She needed to get out of here _fast_, and calling the other cell phone wasn't going to help, seeing as these ghosts could go through walls. She kicked the box, grimacing a bit when the girl inside yelped, and lunged for the phone.

"Looking for this?" The tall boy had scooped it up, coming closer until he dropped it right in front of her. She reached for it, and that was when the apron guy decided to tackle her again. The box ghost scooped the phone from the floor, just inches from her fingers before tossing the box onto Maya's head. Now blinded (by a ghost box; she wasn't sure how that actually worked), she put her head down against the floor to push up with her hands.

Something pierced through the top of the box.

A split second later, something else shattered on top of the cardboard.

Maya threw the box off, on her feet and grasping for the cell phone that the now-revealed box girl had set on a nearby desk. As quickly as she could, she dialed the first number she could think of.

_997-494-582_

She hit send, and to her relief, everything started going black. Her gaze fell upon the box, and she realized that an arrow was stuck through it and bits of pottery were scattered around it. The box girl looked at her box forlornly. "Why is it always my box?" she asked.

Everything faded out before Maya had a chance to hear the answer.

* * *

><p><strong>AN ::**

**Melody Canta ::**

**FINALLY! This chapter is done! If you've ever read any of my other stuff, you know that my chapters are roughly half of this length. That would be because these are a PAIN to get done. Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a choice; it was either do this all in one chapter or figure out where to split it and risk losing dramatic tension. So, I finally got it all out. I know; you guys are disappointed. You want to see a Shikola chapter, right? I have one more to do before she finally gets to do her first one (which is already typed out and just needs editing now, so it shouldn't take too long), so don't fret! (And next time she gets to write the first HALF OF THE FANFICTION. D: )**

**Anyways, to the actual chapter! I forgot to mention in the first chapter a slight _Ghost Trick_ crossover (Missile, anyone?), so that's in there. It's not much; there are Save Points in the game that we thought it might be fun to put him in. And he's just so adorable. Lots of Ace Attorney crossovers in this one (and only one that's somewhat ambiguous, I believe), and the slightest bit of PLOT! Finally, right? And what's Larry doing here now? Well, that's the chronological problem we talked about in the last chapter. If you're looking for Larry's timeline, it goes from The Awakening to The Possession (and believe me, it'll be much clearer soon). **

**Well, onward! I'll see you guys in the next chapter, and then finally, Shikola gets her turn to wow you guys.**

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**YO! No hating on Melody for length or time between published chapters, O-K-A-Y? As for length, this whole thing's going to be pretty darn long so you'll just have to trust us when we say that it'll be worth it. As for the published part, we didn't think too hard before hand about just how much we had to write. So while we've both been pretty enthusiastic about this, we do have lives outside of this particular story. As for my own chapters, those will likely come out with much less down time than Melody's but only because I've been working on them from the beginning and, since they're not due until much later, they just sort of sit around until their time comes. Melody's got the harder job. So like she said: if we try this sort of thing again she'll be making me write the first half. But for now you'll just have to continue to enjoy Canta's stuff. I'm still free until chapter four!**

**As for the chapter, I hope everyone got all the cameo ghosts. If you're not certain of the students (and you HAVE played Dual Destinies) they'll be formally named in one of my chapters MUCH later. The only one that might not be obvious is the creepy bathroom ghost. That's supposed to be Simon Blackquill (also Dual Destinies). If you know the character you can imagine how creepy he would look with his hair down. Why he had to be haunting a bathroom stall is a question that we don't really have an answer to. There's just a super creepy bathroom ghost with long black hair and horrible eyes, so he seemed to fit pretty well. The bathroom part was unfortunate (in the game it's in a girl's bathroom too, if I remember right). Hope you enjoy the weird little places your favorite characters show up!**


	4. The Wandering

**Chapter Three :: The Wandering**

When the darkness began to fade to the corners of her vision and it was obvious that she was no longer in that crazy school, Maya gave a deep sigh of relief, her whole body going lax until she was seated on the floor. Edgeworth had been right; the school had been dangerous, though he hadn't said the three reasons.

Of course, she hadn't wanted to meet all three at once.

She turned her flashlight back on to look for the light switch, and was disappointed to find that the power also seemed to be out wherever she was now. She started looking around. She was in a tiny, cramped room with a computer desk on one side and a locked door on the other. Posters for various things littered the walls, but she found exactly what she was looking for as soon as she waved her light along the floor. A cell phone sat in the corner. Edgeworth had again been right; this wasn't the same phone she had started with. This one had a red case on it, and a fairly scandalous picture of the Pink Princess as its background. "Ew?" she said, flipping the phone closed.

There was the sound of someone typing, and she wondered if it could be Phoenix trying to communicate (though his last message had hardly been helpful; "_I need to tell Edgeworth"_? What, he didn't want to share it with her too?. She looked up to see the very pale, very large image of Sal Manella hacking away at the computer. Saliva was dripping down one side of his mouth as he muttered, "D3adline. H4ve 2 m33t the d3adline." She took a step closer, and he faded away.

She might consider him a genius, but every time she saw him, she was reminded just how creepy he actually was.

The computer chair he'd been sitting in had a slip of paper in it, and she picked it up.

* * *

><p><em>29<em>

* * *

><p>Was all it said. 29? 29 what? Horses? Sheep? Cow udders? Samurai swords? Talk about unhelpful. It certainly wasn't long enough to be a phone number, though it could be a part of one, she realized. Maybe there were multiple slips of paper that she had to put together to spell out a phone number.<p>

The computer was off, and any attempts she made to turn it on were unfruitful, so she returned to examining the room fairly quickly. There was a poster on the wall for some new video game that she thought she could see a face in if she squinted. It was a familiar looking face, with sort of a lion's mane thing going on. She puzzled over it, staring at the poster until she realized that it was getting more defined. It was getting closer, only inches away from her nose. She squeaked, backing up against the wall, but "please don't cry" was the only thing he said before vanishing.

Talk about a nice ghost.

Under the poster was a box with a two-digit combination lock. This had to be what the memo had been talking about, she realized. She turned one of the dials, surprised when the combination changed from _00_ to _12_. She turned the dial on the other side, and the combination changed to _31_.

She could get the hang of this. She twisted the knobs randomly, trying to keep the two in the tens column and fiddling until the combination finally read _29_. There was a click, and the top of the box bounced as the lock released.

Maya opened it and paused. "Doll parts?" she asked, taking out part of a torso, two arms, and a kneecap from the box. There was a slip of paper sitting between the other half of the torso and a calf, and she picked it up.

* * *

><p><em>Bruto Cadaverini - 997-818-662<em>

* * *

><p>Another phone number! Finally! There didn't seem to be much else she could do in this little computer spot, so she pulled out the phone and dialed.<p>

_997-818-662_

Everything faded, and it wasn't until the air cooled and the noises stilled that she opened her eyes again. The new room was pitch black, and again, she had to turn on her flashlight before she could see anything. Of course, once she had, she wished she hadn't.

Dolls. There were dolls. _Everywhere_. They were all turned towards her, staring at her with empty eyes.

On both sides of the room, there were shelves, dolls made of long strands of something on every square inch. She recognized a few of them—Penny Nichols was on the top row on her right—but most of them she didn't know. She picked up the nearest one and put it back almost immediately, grossed out. They were made of noodles. Unfortunately, the noodles seemed to be crusted over with a thick layer of . . . well, _something. _She wiped her hands on the long tablecloth on the shelf, She certainly wasn't going to touch those again.

She turned towards the door. Three beams of red cut through the darkness, coming from the ground, and she shined her flashlight on the source.

It was a man. He had tanned skin and white hair, though some of it was hidden by the visor with the three glowing red bars across it. He wore a dark green shirt and white, pinstripe vest, and there was something about the entire ensemble that seemed so _familiar_. She looked at him for a long minute, trying to think of where she'd seen him before, but after a while, she had to admit that she had no clue.

"Hello?" she asked, walking closer to him when he didn't respond. He had color, unlike the ghosts, and when she reached down to pull at his shirt, it was solid. He didn't even stir, however. "Hello!" She grasped his vest and shook, trying to wake him up. Still nothing. She shook harder and harder until his head connected with the wood floor, and she set him back down to avoid causing further brain damage.

There was a cell phone by the table next to him, and she reached for it, only to have it snatched away by a hand that darted out from under the tablecloth. "For science!" something said, and Maya pounced towards the phone, but it was already gone. She pulled the tablecloth aside. There was no one under the table. Just great. A disembodied hand had stolen the cell phone she needed and disappeared.

Her luck was not helping her out today.

She turned back to the doors. They were the old-fashioned Japanese sliding style, which matched the tatami mat carpeting the owner seemed to have gone for. She tugged on the doors, but they didn't move. There were more dolls—though these ones were actual dolls, not noodles—and a strange black blob in front of the door.

Was this another puzzle for her to solve? Bring it on! She picked up the doll in front with the red kimono on, but it disappeared from her hands. The black blob grew bigger. The doll went back to its original place.

Was that wrong or right? She couldn't tell. But there had to be a clue somewhere around here. She looked around, but the only thing she found was a photograph of the dolls in a row. Still, it was better than nothing. She turned back to the door only to be stopped by a groan coming from behind her.

The man on the floor sat up, pressing a hand to the back of his head. "What—?" he started to say, only to stop and look around. "Dolls . . ."

Maya had crouched down, hoping something would trigger her memory now that he was awake. So far, no good. Still, it would be best to make friends with this guy. If he was dangerous, she was screwed; there was nowhere she could run with the doors locked and she had no cell phone to teleport away with. "Um, hello?"

He didn't even look at her. "So many dolls . . ." he grunted. "Why . . . why dolls?"

"Hello?" she asked a little louder. This time he looked at her, or maybe he was looking through her. She didn't know.

He picked a noodle doll up from the nearby shelf, apparently unaffected by its slimy texture. "This one . . . it looks like her."

"Looks like who?" she asked. She shifted to try to get a better look, but a cell phone rang from the other side of the doors.

Right. Cell phone. She needed one of those to get home. Besides, the idea that Mia was on the other end of it was a nice one. "I'll get that door open. Just take it easy for a bit," she told the man, picking up the picture of the dolls lined up and dragging it over to the door.

There were two ways this could go. She started in the opposite order first, from the end of the line to the front.

Blue kimono.

The dark blob grew bigger, and the doll returned to its place. Then again, she didn't really know what was supposed to happen, so . . . maybe that was right?

She picked up the one with the red and yellow kimono.

The darkness grew.

By the time she had picked up the third one—the one with white sleeves—her heart was starting to pound and the dark blob seemed to eclipse more than half of the door.

This seemed wrong. Time to try the other way. She picked up the one in the front of the line in the picture, the one with the black bow. The darkness faded into the same size it had been when she had first come into the room, and the doll disappeared.

Obviously she was doing something right now. She picked up the one with the striped kimono, then the dog doll (or she thought it was a dog, at least; it could have been just a really ugly fox), the red flower kimono, the white sleeved kimono, and finished with the red and yellow kimono and the blue kimono.

The darkness faded completely. She tried the door, hesitantly opening it when it became obvious she could. She glanced back towards the man on the floor and said, "I'll be right back! Stay here." He could handle himself for a few seconds, right? Just while she grabbed the cell phone. She would be _right__ back._

She closed the door, looking at the room she was in. It looked like someone's attic. There were boxes everywhere and no window. She swept her flashlight upon everything that wasn't pressed up against the walls, wary of a ghost hiding behind something (not that they really needed to hide, but still. Better safe than sorry). When she didn't see anything, she hurried through the room and ran down the stairs.

She'd entered the hallway and had taken a few steps before something dropped from the ceiling in front of her. It rolled towards her, and she realized as it approached that it was another one of the noodle dolls, this time of Sister Bikini. There was a high-pitched child's giggle coming from down the hall, and then it approached closer and closer, more voices joining in until it sounded like an army of children giggling inside of the walls next to her.

And then it suddenly stopped.

She wasn't sure what was more disconcerting—the giggling or that it had ceased so suddenly. She looked around, hoping against hope that the cell phone was somewhere in the hallway, but she didn't see it. It had already stopped ringing, so finding where exactly it was in this house was going to be harder than before.

There was a door on her right that she entered, relieved when she saw the cell phone on the floor. The room looked like a bedroom, complete with a bed, nightstand (and even a rotary phone on it), and a few sets of drawers. She leaned down to pick up the phone.

A hand darted out from under the bed and wrapped around her wrist. Her head snapped around to look at her assailant, and she screamed.

Larry stared up at her, much paler and far more ghostlike than the last time she'd seen him. "MAYAAAAAAAAAAAA! HELP MEEEEEEEEE!"

She pulled back instinctively only to find that the force had pulled him out from under the bed, towering over her. His fingers dug into her shoulders.

"PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE! YOU HAVE TO HELP MEEEEE!"

She managed to wriggle out from under him, grabbing the cell phone as she ran out the door. She'd made it to the corner when something grabbed her leg, pulling her downwards. Larry held the limb to his chest for dear life. "PLEASE, MAYA, PLEASE!" he begged.

She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as she shook him off. There was nothing she could do for him now, she reminded herself, managing to free her leg.

She sprinted toward the attic, but the door was locked. Larry trapped her against it, his hands gripping her neck again. She tried to resist, but his grip was strong and she couldn't break the hold. Gurgling noises came from her mouth as she tried to restore oxygen to her lungs. The world started losing definition as her vision began to fail . . .

He let go.

She slid to the ground, vaguely aware of the sound of a rotary phone ringing. Larry had his hands pressed over his ears, his scream now drowning out the ring. He doubled over, whimpering, "no no no no no no no." After a minute of this, he disappeared.

Maya sighed in relief. Her head was starting to clear, and she glanced at the cell phone. No text messages, no missed calls. So much for that.

The rotary phone in the bedroom was still ringing. She got to her feet, entered the bedroom, and answered it.

Again, it was Pearl's voice. _"You promised! You promised you wouldn't try to hurt her again! How could you do this? I—I hate you, Mother!"_ There was so much pain in her voice that the last sentence seemed extra venomous, especially from Pearly. Pearl Fey, who didn't possess a hateful bone in her body. Something seemed odd.

The line went dead and Maya put the phone back on the receiver. What had Morgan done to spark Pearl's ire like that? And who had she hurt now? Iris? She couldn't think of anything that her aunt had done to her recently, unless this strange ghost world was her doing, but Maya doubted it was. While Morgan had the power to channel ghosts like most Feys, her powers were weak compared to Maya's or Pearl's. There was no way she could have pulled off something of this magnitude.

In any case, she couldn't stick around much longer. She'd told the man that she'd be right back. He was probably starting to wonder if she'd abandoned him.

The door to the attic was unlocked. "Of course," she muttered bitterly. "Now that I'm not running for my life." She turned, only to realize there was a ghost in the room. He stared at her, but didn't move. She stared back at him. "My noodles . . . My noodles are . . ." His voice trailed off, leaving her to wait with bated breath until he vanished.

His noodles were what? Dolls? Covered with some slimy substance she couldn't identify? He hadn't attacked her, so she quickly went through the door to the doll room before he changed his mind.

The man was gone. He wasn't on the floor anymore, and she knew she hadn't imagined him. He'd been real when she had slammed his head back against the floor. But somehow, he was gone. There hadn't been a cell phone in here, unless you counted the one that had been abducted by the disembodied science hand, so he couldn't have teleported. The house had only one hallway. If he'd left the room, she would have seen him.

Where had he gone?

She shone the flashlight over where he'd been sitting. There was a piece of paper, much like the ones she and Edgeworth had exchanged earlier. She picked it up.

* * *

><p><em>Diego Armando — 997-618-252<em>

_Kuromiya Hospital Room #204_

* * *

><p>The only thing she could think of was that he had somehow managed to find a phone and call this number. There didn't seem to be much more she could do here, and she was a bit worried, since he had barely been coherent when she had seen the man last. She flipped open the phone and dialed.<p>

_997-618-252_

She hit send, closing her eyes and trusting that the world around her was about to fade.

* * *

><p>When she opened her eyes again, there was a white light floating in front of her and something vibrating to her left. She clicked on her flashlight in order to see that the vibrating thing was a cell phone. This had happened before, she remembered, when she was in the school. There had been a white light, and she had recorded it to hear the voices. She picked up the phone, walking over to the light and hearing the familiar murmuring. She hit the record button and waited.<p>

It automatically played back, like normal.

_"We need to get her clothing out of the way."_

_"What happened?"_

_"They found her up in the mountains with a stab wound through her abdomen. She's hypothermic too."_

_"BP is dropping!"_

_"Get her to the OR."_

_"Yes, doctor!"_

The recording cut off, leaving Maya very confused. She waved the light around, trying to figure out where she was. She was in an office of sorts, though the pristine tile floor and medical gauze in the corner made her think of a hospital. But that was what that memo had said, right? Kuromiya Hospital Room #204. This didn't seem much like a hospital room though. For one, there was no hospital bed. And where was the weird machine that beeped in time with a person's heart rate?

There was a file sitting on the desk, and she picked it up out of curiosity.

It seemed to be a medical chart, but whose chart was a mystery. The name was unreadable. The rest of the chart, however, had different, fairly legible scribble for a doctor.

* * *

><p><em>Injuries: <em>

_Stomach punctured by sharp force trauma._

_Ribs 6 and 7 broken._

_Left femur shattered._

_Bruising along the left side of the body consistent with blunt force trauma._

_Patient was admitted hypothermic, but body temperature regulated within forty-five minutes._

* * *

><p>Why did this feel so familiar? She closed her eyes, trying to summon up the memory . . .<p>

And then it came.

The images flashed quickly. The dagger that sliced through her abdomen, her eyes as she stared at a Pearl Fey who was entirely too tall and too old to be the Pearly she knew. A Pearl Fey with braids in her hair, a smile smoothed over delicate features. Rubies seemed to be splattered on her robes, though they couldn't be rubies with the way they seemed to turn to liquid at her sleeves, coating graceful fingers in red. The same liquid extended from her torso, a crimson flower blooming in the snow, its dark tendrils still seeping out around the knife.

She gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. That was Hazakura Temple! The training grounds, where her mother had died! But instead of her mother, it had been Maya on the ground and Pearl wielding the knife.

That wasn't how it had happened. Or was it? She racked her brain, trying to remember what had happened. Misty had summoned Dahlia instead, and . . . then what? She tried to recall that night in detail, but it was fuzzy, despite the fact that she'd had nightmares about it for years afterwards.

Which story was real?

Who held the knife?

And had she actually died that night?

She dropped the file back on the desk and exited the room, shaken. She'd known what had happened that night, until this very moment, and she didn't have enough evidence to justify either one of the things she remembered. Her hand pressed against her stomach, but there was no hole where the dagger had been, nothing to prove that she had been physically affected either way.

The door led out to the hallway, fluorescent lights built into the ceiling and the same sterile tile as the room she'd just come out of. Each room had a small placard attached to the wall. That one said "Consultation Room".

She wandered down the hallway until it came to a T, not seeing anything of interest. There was a vending machine on her immediate left. Vending machines always made her think of Mia, of how she'd scold Maya for checking the change return for money people had left behind. Maya had never seen the problem; after all, who came back for fifty-one cents? But then again, that had been classic Mia. Fighter for the fair, protector of the small.

She pressed the change return wistfully, wishing her sister was there. The disembodied hand shot out of the slot and grabbed her wrist. "FOR SCIENCE!" it shouted, and Maya screamed. She wrestled with the hand, yanking back and forth until the hand released her and returned to the machine.

A lump rose in her throat, and she gave a sob, burying her face in her hands. She just wanted to go home. Away from these ghosts and these people who weren't helpful to her at all. Where was Edgeworth now? And Larry was . . . Larry was . . .

She gave a shuddering breath, steering her thoughts away from that. Larry was fine. He had to be fine. Edgeworth would help him, even if Maya had failed at it.

Again.

She could feel eyes on her suddenly, and her head snapped up. This was no time to feel sorry for herself! Squaring her shoulders, she looked around for the culprit. She looked back towards the hallway and was blinded momentarily by a flash of white light, two eyes seeming to stare at her in the moment of sensory deprivation. She blinked, and in front of her was a ghost. She was dressed in nurse's scrubs, holding a clipboard. Her hair swept down from her cap, hiding one of her eyes. The desolate look on her face was one Maya recognized immediately.

Since when was Adrian Andrews a nurse?

Adrian stared at her with sad eyes before turning and taking a few steps back down the hallway. She glanced over her shoulder back at Maya and paused.

Did she want to be followed?

Maya walked towards her slowly and Adrian led her past the Consultation Room to a staircase before proceeding up it. They went up only one flight of stairs before Adrian walked down the hall again. This floor seemed to be identical to the one below it, with its spotless tile and dead fluorescent lights. They had gone past only a few rooms when Adrian suddenly vanished.

She was on her own again.

_Yip yip yip yip yip. Yip yip._

Or maybe not. The barking was faint, but she could hear it clearly. She walked farther down the hall, hearing it come most strongly from Room 202. She entered to find Missile barking at what looked like the bottom half of a ghost penguin pacing behind a curtain.

"Missile?"

The dog gasped (or something close to it; it might have been a snort) before bounding over to her happily. "Miss Burgers! HELLO!" He pawed at her knees and she knelt down to smother him with affection, petting every inch of him she could reach. He slobbered all over her in his race to lick her face thoroughly, and by the time they stopped rolling around, she felt like she needed a shower to clean off the dog saliva that was on her skin and robes.

"What are you doing here?"

"I found a thing!" he said, turning again to the curtain and starting to bark at it again. The ghost penguin continued to shuffle around at the same speed.

Could she be attacked by a ghost penguin? What would that even look like? Deciding she didn't really want to know, she picked Missile up, holding tight when he squirmed and whined, and exited the room. "Where should we go?" she asked the dog.

He squirmed in her arms. "Back to the thing," he whined, and she sighed.

"Not happening." She pulled out the slip of paper with the hospital's phone number again. _Diego Armando. Kuromiya Hospital Room #204._ She was only a few rooms away.

Room 204 looked just like Room 202 with the exception of the penguin. A curtain was drawn around one of the beds, but the other one was exposed. The cell phone vibrated as she neared the open bed, and she recorded the muttering she could hear.

_"I—Is he any better?"_ The voice was so familiar, but Maya couldn't quite place it.

_"Not that I can tell." _This one Maya knew immediately. She'd spoken with her sister enough to recognize her voice over the phone. Just the five words made her ache for Mia.

_"I'm sorry."_

_"For what?" _Mia sounded confused.

_"I . . . I can't say." _There was a few moments of awkward silence before the mystery voice spoke again, soft and hesitant. _"He's lucky to have someone like you around."_

_"I want to be here when he wakes up." _Mia's voice cracked. _"I just want him to be okay, you know?"_

_"Of course. Is there anything I can do?"_

_"Probably not. But thank you."_

_"I'll just sit here with you then. You look like you could use the company."_

She could hear Mia chuckle. _"Thanks, Iris."_

Iris. Dahlia's sister. She hadn't known that Mia had known her cousin. But why had Mia been in the hospital, right in this room?

Who was Diego Armando, and why was she so determined to be there when he woke up?

In the bed, there was a piece of paper much like the one the man had left behind. She picked it up, her fingers trembling.

* * *

><p><em>Mia Fey — 997-082-196<em>

* * *

><p>She hadn't really needed the number, to tell the truth; she still had Mia's cell phone number memorized, even though the number had now likely been assigned to someone else. But what was Mia's cell phone number doing here in a hospital bed? She opened her cell phone when Missile suddenly started barking.<p>

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I hear something," he growled. She set him down, and he immediately darted towards the door. She opened it for him. He bounded up the stairs.

"Wait!" she shouted, sprinting after him. They went up to the third floor before they both suddenly stopped.

There were faces. In the walls. "Missile?" she said, her voice quavering. She stepped back and he started barking at the faces, though he didn't get any closer.

"HELLO!" he shouted between barks.

The faces shifted to look towards them.

"Time to go!" Maya said, her heart rate racing. She pulled out her cell phone, punching in Mia's number.

_997-082-196_

Before everything went black, she grabbed Missile, hoping she could take him with her. And then she shut her eyes tightly, not wanting to see the faces move and approach them.

When she opened her eyes again, she was on the floor, her hand still clutching her flashlight. Missile was gone though, and she really hoped he wasn't back at the hospital still. She turned the flashlight on, getting up and looking around. It looked like someone's living room. There was a cell phone on the coffee table that she picked up, but beyond that, it was boring. The couch was comfortable though, and she sat down on it, trying to decide what to do.

What was the point of continuing to run around aimlessly? The farther she went, the more aggressive the ghosts seemed to be getting, and the more confused she got. On the other hand, if she did nothing, she was likely to never get out of here. She got back up and froze.

There were footsteps. Creaking above her, wooden boards groaning as weight was placed on them.

Edgeworth? Missile? Or someone else?

She exited the room and looked around. She was looking down a long hallway. She turned right, finding a kitchen immediately. "I'm liking the purple fridge," she said to herself, opening it. There was a sandwich in there, and she was hungry, so she took it, figuring that if she could find whose home this was, she'd apologize later. She continued to munch on the sandwich as she looked around the kitchen. There was a box of matches on the counter, and she grabbed those too. This was the longest she'd ever had a flashlight last, and she'd received it with no idea of how full the batteries were when she had found it. At the very least, it might come in handy. She'd never tried lighting a ghost on fire before . . .

There was nothing more on this side of the hallway, so she passed the door to the living room and came to the front door. Nothing over there but a table with a rotary phone on it. The stairs were across from it, and she proceeded upstairs. She was in a more cramped hallway now, with three sliding doors like the doll room. She brandished her flashlight like a sword, in case it was a ghost she'd heard walking around up here.

She grasped the side of one of the doors, taking a deep breath, and—

The doorbell rang.

Maya whipped around, shining her light down the stairway. There was no one there (obviously, since the door hadn't been open). Of course, that was when the problems started. The light began to dim and then flicker. "Oh no no no no NO!" she shouted, hitting the body of the flashlight in the hope that the batteries were just coming loose or something. It continued to flicker.

And then it went dead.

Well, now it was dark.

She'd picked up matches in the kitchen, but she hadn't seen anything she could light in there. She turned back around, resolved to find something in a nearby room, when she realized there was a light emanating from one of the doors.

She approached the room hesitantly, afraid that there was a ghost behind it like there had been the first time. Her sixth sense prickled. She slid the door open, though it would only open a crack.

There was a girl in a kimono and apron kneeling on the floor, praying to the altar set up in front of her. Her head bowed, and her form wavered ethereally before she disappeared. What _didn't_ fade away, however, was the candle she could barely see on the altar. She had matches. Matches + candle = light, right? If she could get in there, she could find a temporary light source until she found new batteries.

She rattled the door harder, trying to get it to open wider than the inch it had, but it wouldn't budge. Dang it, she needed to get in there!

She peered through the opening again, looking around the room. There was a door on the right. She looked in the hallway to her right. There was a door over there. She put two and two together, realizing that the two rooms likely connected through the door inside. She went over to the door on her right, throwing it open in case it put up resistance. It hadn't, and it made a loud crashing noise as it connected with the wall.

The room looked a bit like a spare room, but without light, she couldn't see anything in detail. She ignored the rest of it, opening the door to the altar room and making a beeline for the candle.

Something crashed down to the floor behind her as she entered, but she ignored it, instead picking up the potential light source and felt for the wick. It was there, and it felt fairly fresh. She took the matches from her pocket, lighting one after a few tries (thank goodness that they didn't have a lighter in Kurain Village; she'd had plenty of practice at lighting candles). She transferred the flame to the candle wick expertly, relieved when it began to burn on its own.

Hopefully it would last until she could find more batteries for the flashlight.

She turned to go back to the previous room when something caught her eye. There was a picture on the floor, the frame cracked (that must have been what had fallen, she supposed). The picture inside was of her older sister and a man who looked very familiar . . .

Where did she know him from . . . ?

She gasped. The man in the doll room! The one who had disappeared! Sure, in the picture he was wearing a red shirt instead of a green one, his hair was brown instead of white, and there was no weird visor on his face, but it had to be him!

There was no question that he and her sister had been close. He was seated in an office chair, Mia's arms thrown around him. Her cheek was pressed to his, a beatific smile on her face, a warm smile on his.

She felt herself tearing up suddenly, wiping her eyes with her free hand before picking the picture up. It had been more than ten years since she'd seen Mia last, and she missed her sister dearly, no matter how often she was channeled.

It hadn't escaped her notice that she was in the world of the dead and she hadn't seen the one person she wanted to see.

She extracted the picture from the frame, carefully avoiding the broken glass. She put it in her pocket, surprised when she saw a piece of paper behind the picture. She unfolded it and began to read.

* * *

><p><em>Dear Diego,<em>

_I feel a bit silly, writing a letter to you that you'll never read. I just need to get my thoughts out, and Iris suggested writing a letter, so . . . _

_I'm so sorry. Maybe if I'd been a better lawyer, you wouldn't be in that hospital bed right now. You'd be sitting here next to me, and I wouldn't be writing this letter at all. But I couldn't put her away, and you had to pay the price for my incompetence. I'll never let myself forget that. _

_But don't worry. I got her. The legal system has finally pulled through for us._

_I have a new assistant. He's fresh out of law school, just like I was when we met. His first case was awkward, and it was a close call (I think I was waiting for a guilty verdict during the whole first half), but he managed a not guilty. I'd like to say he won't need me soon, but, well, he still needs a lot of help. I haven't told him about you yet. Visiting you is a special time for me; I already share it with Iris, and that's more than enough._

_Iris. I guess you never met her. She's been really helpful all this time. She reminds me so much of Pearly; she's so sweet. Of course I hope that she's not the only one there when you wake up. Don't want you waking up from your coma only to have a heart attack._

_Please wake up. I still need you._

_I miss you._

_Love,_

_Mia_

* * *

><p>Maya wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, holding the letter to her chest. If Mia could suffer through whatever had happened to this Diego guy, she could make it out of here alive. Her resolve renewed, she slipped the letter into the pocket of her robes and went into the room she'd ignored earlier. If she was going to get out of here, she needed to be thorough in her investigation.<p>

The room looked like it was someone's spare bedroom, though, it was a bit odd that the bed was a futon rather than the traditional Western-style mattress. It reminded her a lot of Kurain Village . . .

She'd called Mia's number in order to arrive here. Was it possible this could be Mia's house?

Maya glanced around, trying to decide if anything looked familiar. She'd only ever visited once, when Mia had moved in with a boyfriend. Mia had cast an eye around the house and whispered to Maya that it definitely needed some work. Her boyfriend had laughed and said, "Whatever you want, Kitten." For some reason, Maya couldn't recall his face.

She resumed her search, moving to the closet. There were blankets for the futon wedged inside, and a tiny wooden piece on the floor that looked so familiar . . .

Something rang, and Maya checked the cell phone before realizing it had to be the rotary phone next to the front door. Every time she had picked up a phone other than the cell, Pearly had been on the other line, and Maya hoped that this time was no exception. She raced out of the room, the wooden piece from the closet still clutched in her hand, and threw herself downstairs. Her hand landed on the receiver, and she picked up the phone. "Hello?"

She could hear sniffling on the other line. _"It's all my fault. All of it. Why did she have to . . . why?!" _The final word had been twisted with grief and anger, enough to make Maya press a hand to her mouth in sympathy. What had happened to Pearl? The line went dead.

A thrill suddenly went up her spine, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. She turned towards the door, the only direction she couldn't see out of the corner of her eye, only to be met with the sight of Dahlia, one hand poised on her chest. Her form wavered, so ethereal in being that even keeping her shape seemed to be difficult.

"I'm not strong enough," she was saying, though it sounded like it was coming from a tin can. "I can't—" This sounded stronger. Maya took a step toward her cousin, and Dahlia's gaze snapped to hers, recognition blooming instantly. "Maya! Maya, you can't—" Her voice faded again, mouth continuing to move as her body faded completely, and the rest of the sentence was lost.

"D—Dahlia?" she stuttered, almost hoping that she would come back. Company seemed to be hard to come by in this place.

Something crashed from upstairs, and she turned to see a short, squat ghost man rolling down the staircase. He stopped at her feet, pausing, before he moved like lightning, grabbing something in her pocket and darting down the hallway before she could really react. "Hey!" she shouted, running after him, but he was already gone.

What had he taken? She rifled through her pockets, finding everything except for Mia's letter. She sighed, hoping that hadn't been important for her to have later. It wasn't like she was going to be able to get it back from him anyways.

But now what? She had a wooden piece that she recognized as coming from a puzzle box her mother had given Mia back when they were children, but no idea as to where the box actually was. She'd pretty thoroughly searched upstairs; there wasn't going to be much more she could find up there. She was at a bit of a standstill.

"Have to . . . clean . . . the bathroom."

"Huh?" Maya asked, looking around.

"Have to . . . or Mr. Wright will be . . ." The voice was slow and the person seemed to be gasping for air, but Maya had a feeling she knew who it was. There was a tiny bathroom off to her right, and she stepped inside, only to be greeted by a ghost-Apollo scrubbing at the toilet.

"Apollo?" she asked, bending down to his level.

He turned, and she was disconcerted by the normally warm brown eyes that were now glassy and white. "Maya . . ." He said her name so quietly she might have imagined it. "You're . . . here."

"Of course. What are you doing here?" she asked, her arms wrapping around her legs.

"Cleaning . . . the bathroom." He turned back to his task, only to think twice about it, turning back around to look at her. "You . . . shouldn't be here."

"I don't know how to get out. I'm trying, I swear!"

He nodded, and she suddenly realized that his "antennae", as Trucy liked to call them, weren't bowed just because of his mood, but because they were dripping with water. "It's . . . hard to get out . . . of here."

"What happened to you?"

"Some woman . . . I . . . I couldn't breathe. Too much . . . water." He shivered, and Maya huddled backwards instinctively. "Don't go in . . . the bathtub."

Her gaze flickered over to the dark tub. "Apollo, I . . ."

"Just get out of here . . . You have to save her."

"Save who?"

But his eyes, still blank and glassy, seemed to become dead. His head cocked to the side, and suddenly, he shuddered again and vanished.

"Apollo?" she asked, looking around for the young defense attorney hurriedly. "Apollo!" No, he couldn't be gone. She knew him, she'd been to some of his trials, he'd cooked burgers for her . . . He might have been able to help her escape from this place.

She exited the bathroom, chills going down her spine as she looked around in the hopes she'd see him. No luck. She turned to the part of the hallway she hadn't investigated yet, running down it and stopping at the end. The door on her left was partially open, and she could see movement under a blanket on the floor. She pushed it open farther and stopped short.

Mia Fey was curled up on the floor, covered by a blanket and clutching a pillow, her face relaxed in peaceful slumber. She could see her breathe, the blanket covering her sister moving with the expansion and contraction of her lungs.

"Mia?" she asked, taking a few steps forward. Mia's eyes opened, and she gave a beatific smile before starting to fade. "W—Wait!"

"Don't give up yet, Maya," she could hear, the whispered words echoing around the now-empty room. Maya's breath caught, and she stumbled towards where Mia had been reclined, realizing that there was a very familiar puzzle box on the pillow. Once upon a very long time ago, Mia had been obsessed with puzzle boxes, and her favorite, which their mother had given her for Mia's tenth birthday, featured a picture of a black cat.

The wooden piece from the closet was still in her hand, and she knew from memory that the piece would complete the bottom-right corner. Once she finished it, the box would open up.

Mia had left her a clue. Maya could have cried in relief.

She sat down on the futon and solved the puzzle by sliding the pieces to the correct position. She pressed the final piece into the corner, and the box opened with a click. She slid the top off, revealing a piece of paper tucked inside. She opened the note and began to read.

* * *

><p><em>Miss Fey,<em>

_I wanted to thank you for keeping Mr. Armando company. I really do believe you're helping him, and I think he can hear what you're saying, even if he can't say anything back. I know this has all been hard on you. That being said, I'm a bit worried; you've been looking a bit pale lately, and you don't look like you've been feeling well. I'd like to do a consultation and make sure that you're well._

_Here's my personal cell phone number: 997-116-286 Feel free to call me at any time to set something up. In the meantime, make sure to sleep enough hours a night and eat a balanced diet. _

_Wishing you the best,_

_Adrian Andrews_

* * *

><p>Adrian had reached out to Mia? Adrian had <em>known<em> Mia? Since when? Then again, she was offering medical assistance again, and Maya couldn't ever remember hearing Adrian talk about being a nurse.

First Pearly, now Adrian? Something strange was going on here, and Maya had the feeling that she wasn't going to get out until she figured it all out.

* * *

><p><strong>AN ::**

**Melody Canta ::**

**Does this ending seem weird to you? Because it seems REALLY weird to me. Regardless, reading the letter is where the chapter cuts off, no joke. I added in the last piece of synthesis to end with something that felt like an ending. That being said, the next chapter IS NOT MINE! You guys are finally going to get to see Shikola's writing prowess (and in much less time than I used, because her chapters are all almost done being written up). But hey, we're coming close to the end of my sections, so that's something?**

**Sorry about the delay in the chapters; we're coming up on Finals, and Shikola recently distracted me with Dangan Ronpa. Plus, with the new Studio Ghibli film . . . there wasn't much of a contest what would get done. I'm working on my next chapter as we speak, and in the meantime, enjoy Shikola's chapter! Also, I'm not a medical professional, so if any of my "diagnosis" of what happened to Maya is implausible, please do tell me. My knowledge comes from Wikipedia.**

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**Hey, Dangan Ronpa (Trigger Happy Havoc for all of you who might go looking for the US version of the game) was a good distraction! It will likely be part of our next work! Of course I won't give you any more hints other than, after this, I don't think I'll ever be allowed to write about Edgeworth again. Just no. And The Wind Rises was a must-see anyways. In our case it was a must-see-twice. . .**

**Anywho, any ghosts you guys didn't recognize? I realize that the faces weren't given much detail, but just imagine who has many faces and you'll get the right idea of who that's supposed to be (if you've played Dual Destinies that should be obvious. If not, well, sorry). Why is Adrian a nurse? Well, we needed a nurse who was nice but kind of annoying and she seemed like a good choice. You'll get another oddly placed not-so-nurse-like character introduced in the second version of my next chapter (OMG YOU GET TO READ MY CHAPTER! FINALLY!). I won't spoil who it is, but they're possibly the most violent ghost encounter of our entire story. Oh yeah! The strange stair thief was supposed to be the tanuki guy in Dual Destinies. Stealing the note seemed nicer than stealing her shoes.**

**On a different note, did anybody else get "the feels" when Melody threw in that Diego and Mia were living together? Part of me doesn't know if that's plausible, but the other doesn't see any other way that the house would work (and just plain wants it to have happened). Also, any opinions on Apollo's tragic note? The side stories are becoming more of a real possibility than just a fantasy and I think I might snatch his story for myself. Fact is Melody's keen on going through alternate endings (there are various deaths that result in some freaky picture messages and a couple of amusing deaths), so maybe I'll make it my goal to fill in the blanks for the others who were actually a part of the nightmare (meaning Athena, Apollo, and possibly Phoenix). But we'll see. Hope you enjoy my chapter with Godot!**


	5. The Return

**Chapter Four :: The Return**

Darkness.

Endless darkness.

Darker than the blackest cup of coffee.

THUD!

And then it wasn't. Then it was a weird swirl of lights, colors, and even some strange sounds.

Godot awoke confused. He was so used to his cot that he recognized the strange feel of a tatami mat immediately. He sat up and felt a blunt pain in the back of his head, almost like he had been struck by something. He tried to feel for a bump and found that his visor was still there. That meant that it was still helping to give definition to his surroundings, but what it showed him seemed extremely unreal. The shelves around him were dripping with soggy noodles and there were things that looked like voodoo dolls crafted out of noodles, each with their own colorful outfits to give them character. "What—?" A particular doll caught his attention and he had a hard time focusing on anything else. "Dolls. . ."

"Um . . . hello?" A young woman with a little topknot and an outdated purple kimono was in the strange room with him, but as familiar as she was, his mind was otherwise occupied at the moment.

"So many dolls. . ." He was having a very hard time grasping what was going on and the mysterious environment wasn't giving him any clues. "Why . . . why dolls?" Still he reached for the one doll that had caught his attention and completely ignored the odd feel of crusty noodles in his hands as he examined it. It was supposed to be a girl in a dark pink kimono of sorts with long black hair and braids that went down from her forehead to her back.

"Hello?" Her voice was a bit louder that time. He knew that she was trying to gain his consideration, but his head was swimming.

"This one. . ." He continued to examine the familiar doll in his hand as he muttered, "it looks like her." After he said it he tried hard to figure out just who he meant. Why did he recognize the doll? Who was she to him? Why couldn't he remember?

"Looks like who?" The girl had it right. The doll didn't matter. He needed to get back to reality and figure out just what was going on. But just as he turned to look at the girl the sound of a cell phone ringing from outside of the room distracted her. "I'll get that door open. Just take it easy for a bit," she told him as she went about the small room frantically, snatching a photo from the table where the dolls were and making her way around to a sliding door that was blocked by a few dolls that didn't seem to be composed of noodles and a strange shadowy presence between them. Looking closely at the picture, the girl reached for a doll and picked it up. Almost instantaneously, the doll vanished, returned to where it had been before, and the dark mass grew larger. It felt somewhat frightening—like it would swallow them whole if it got much bigger. Much to his dismay, she picked up a few more and as they returned to their original positions the mass grew.

He looked over the girl's shoulder at the photograph that she was holding and saw that it showed all of the dolls lined up. Thinking about it he realized that she had been picking up the dolls in the order that they were placed in the picture from right to left. She whimpered a bit before switching around and starting with the doll on the far left side of the photo. This time, the doll vanished without a trace and the dark mass shrank back down to the size that it had originally been. The two of them let out a sigh of relief and she continued to pick up the dolls in the correct order until the mass disappeared altogether and the door slid open on its own. "I'll be right back! Stay here," the girl said before rushing out of the room. As she got further away he noticed that she had a flashlight with her and it was what had been illuminating the room. Without it his visor had to work overtime just to keep things visible.

Godot took a few moments to try to get a grasp on the situation. He knew his name. "Godot," he muttered to himself. "DieGO ArmanDO." He felt better after confirming that for himself, but not much else made sense. He knew that he was wearing a visor and he knew that it was there to help him see, but he had no recollection of what had hindered his vision. As he tried to recall things, he heard creaky door hinges. He looked out at the door where the girl had gone and watched as it closed itself. "Okay . . . do doors normally do that?"

All of a sudden, he heard the sliding door open at the other end of the small room where the girl had left him. He looked back and was forced to shield his visor from the blinding light. He could just barely make out the shroud of a different woman who felt more familiar to him than the purple kimono girl and the weird doll. The woman motioned for him to follow her and walked into the light. In that moment Godot wanted more than anything to go after her. It seemed so right. Like there was nothing holding him there in that strange room.

But the handle on the door where the girl had left shook as if someone had tried to turn it with no luck.

"PLEASE, MAYA, PLEASE!"

The sharp cry shattered the peace that Godot felt and forced him to look back at the other room where the girl had gone. It didn't sound like she was the one screaming, but there was some sort of struggle going on right on the other side of the door and she could have been in danger. There was no way that he could just leave her behind. So he stood up and went towards the darker door with a sense of purpose pulling him towards it—

And the sliding door that had been opened by moving the eerie dolls slammed shut when he got close.

He tried to force it back open, but it was like it had been cemented in place. He searched the room for a means of breaking through and discovered a cell phone on the floor. He wondered if maybe he could use it to contact the ringing phone that the girl had sought out, but when he flipped it open he saw a familiar image of a black cat in the city.

"Kit . . . ten . . ." he muttered to himself. He knew that the title held a special importance to him, but what it meant escaped his mind. He closed the phone, completely forgetting about the earlier scream, and stepped into the light.

The door seemed to lead outside into a pale forest. Up ahead, the familiar woman looked back at him. He was glad that she had waited. Though he couldn't distinguish her facial features well, he could see that she was wearing business-like attire which made her appear very professional. Encouraged by her sideways glance, he followed her. Walking felt strange—almost like nothing tethered him to the ground—so he didn't dare run. Thankfully the woman kept pace ahead of him and always stopped when he fell behind, giving him that same encouraging look over her shoulder. Though he wanted to focus on the warm radiance that she seemed to cast, Godot couldn't help but examine the strange world around him. Everything was pale and surrounded by light. The trees seemed to be trapped in a state that was neither alive nor dead. Most interesting—if not a little unsettling—were the wisps of smoke that vaguely resembled people. They were everywhere and occasionally he even walked right through a few. The world of light would have been altogether silent if it wasn't for the soft and unthreatening muttering that seemed to come from those wisps.

Godot managed to refocus on the woman only to see her walking into a blinding light. He continued to go after her and the light consumed him briefly only to let him out at the entrance of a hospital with his lovely guide nowhere to be seen. He decided to walk over to the counter to take a moment and consider things, but as he drew closer, he heard a soft yet shrill sound that brought his attention to the empty waiting room chairs. Wait. No . . . not empty. . . Sitting alone in one seat was a girl with her head down. She looked sad. Godot had mixed feelings of sympathy and loathing towards her that he had trouble keeping apart. She looked frail and even beautiful—her hair done in two perfectly symmetrical braids that started from the center of her forehead and went along at a V-shaped angle down just past her shoulders. It was like a soft halo . . . or were they horns? He approached her, hoping to ask her what was going on, but she just faded away when he got close and the sound disappeared with her.

With all of the strange noises gone, Godot became very aware of how quiet things were. It was more than a bit unnerving to be in an unfamiliar place that was more silent than the grave. He turned the corner along the counter slowly and saw that the hospital stretched out into a long hallway. He tried hard to see what was at the end of it only to hear faded sirens as a nurse and doctor wheeled a gurney through. Godot just barely noticed the purple kimono sleeve hanging off the side of the gurney as it drew closer, then he saw the girl from the waiting room seat step out of the way and caught a glimpse of the menacing smile on her face before they all vanished. Godot felt a chill but decided it best to press on.

Figuring that he had to find a clue about his whereabouts somewhere, he decided to check out the first room in the hall. The placard by the door said: "Consultation Room". As soon as his hand touched the knob he felt as if a jolt went through his entire body and a flash of yellow cat eyes went through his mind. He looked down by his feet and saw a black cat with a red bandanna around its neck; just like the one in the picture on the phone he had picked up. It meowed once before actually saying, "She doesn't want you to go into the operating room."

Deep down Godot knew that cats shouldn't appear out of nowhere or speak, but somehow that didn't bother him. Something else _was_ bugging him, however. "That's fine, but the sign says consultation room."

The cat stared at him with its big yellow eyes for a minute before it turned away mumbling to itself. ". . . no matter who I talk to . . . can't read . . . I'm a cat, obviously, why would I be able to read? . . ."

Godot just smirked, somewhat bemused by the strange cat, and proceeded to enter the Consultation room. It didn't seem like anything was odd in there. It looked like a normal consultation room with a prominent desk sitting against the wall. On top of the desk was a clipboard with what seemed from a distance to be notes on the hospital itself. He figured that it would only help to know where he was so he went to pick them up only to have a strange doctor-like creep jump out of the desk and attack him! It caught him by the shoulders with a vice like grip and shook him violently. "This is my hospital!" it cried out with a smug and unforgiving voice. "I swear! It's really my hospital!"

Godot didn't care whose hospital it was; if he didn't get free soon, he'd surely be admitted to it! He used all his strength to force the man off, watching as he faded away with a distant cry of, "I'm the director, really. . ."

Godot's heart raced as he was greeted once again with the serene silence which he had grown a new appreciation for. He rushed back out to the hallway and took a deep breath to clear his head. While the empty hospital was undeniably eerie, it was safe.

It didn't take long for him to decide that he should continue to explore, though from the safety of the halls. Disappearing people didn't seem to attack him there. He found a stairwell where the hallway came to an end and figured that there was nowhere else to go but up. It didn't take him long to discover that going up stairs was even more difficult than just walking around in this strange world; every step made him feel like he might float away so it took more effort than before to stay anchored to the ground. But when he finally reached the second floor, he was greeted with the ringing sound again. He looked down the hall and saw the woman waiting for him. Upon seeing him, she turned away and walked through a door further down the hall. Godot went after her and came upon the room in no time. "I'm really losing it," he mumbled to himself. "She went in without even opening the door."

He glanced up at the placard—Room 204—and touched the door just to confirm that it was, in fact, solid. Then he took a deep breath and touched the doorknob, only to exhale when no cat eyes flashed through his head. He turned the knob and took a step in to find that it was a patient room with four beds set up. The room was quiet and empty for only a moment before the shrill sound returned and suddenly there were two other people sitting at a bed where a man slept. The woman who had been guiding him was sitting on one of the chairs by the bed. He could finally see her face and something about it ripped at his heartstrings. She really was beautiful. Her eyes were sharp and commanding but when he looked hard enough he could see the bags beneath them and it was clear from how red and swollen they were that she had been doing more than her fair share of crying. And yet her soft lips pulled back into a warm smile as she spoke to the other girl in the room. The girl's back was to him so he couldn't see her face, but he recognized the braids in her hair. Without a doubt she was the same girl who had been in the waiting room and the hallway. She seemed to be talking cheerfully with the woman. Godot wished that he could hear was they were saying, but their words sounded like nothing more than the distant muttering of the wisps. Were they friends? At one point the woman looked to the third person—the man sleeping in the bed—and intertwined her fingers with his. Godot finally took the time to examine the man's face. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be sleeping solemnly, almost as if he could wake up at any moment. His hair looked like it hadn't been touched in years and quite a bit of it was blanched, though he hardly seemed old enough to be going gray. What sort of trauma could turn a man's hair so white?

Almost as suddenly as they appeared, the people vanished into the nothingness that the hospital was so full of. "Why do I feel like I know that man?" he wondered out loud. He left the room and heard the shrill sound yet again. He looked just in time to see the faceless version of the woman go into the stairwell. He didn't need to ask where she was going. Something in him just knew that it was up.

So he went up to the third floor, still struggling on the steps, and as soon as he reached the new hall, he saw the woman walk through another door. When he reached it, he read the placard aloud. "Cafeteria? What could she possibly want to show me here?" He went in and the whole room changed this time. Then he saw them. They were sitting at a table together discussing something over coffee. It was the woman, though she looked more vibrant without the bags under her eyes or the stress lines on her face, and the man, though his hair was entirely brown. He looked just as old as he did in the bed, but clearly he was in better health. The man seemed to be frustrated and the woman with him looked deeply concerned. "Come on, man," Godot whispered. "Don't make a girl like that worry." Suddenly Godot noticed the girl with the braids as she walked by the other side of the table. She paused for just a moment and turned her head towards him! He froze in place as he was faced with what could only be described as the look of the devil itself; her eyes so dark and angry and her mouth twisted into an inhuman grin. Godot wanted to warn the man to look over at her, but his voice had left him completely. When the man _did_ turn, she disappeared without a trace before he could even notice. He picked up his coffee mug and downed the whole thing before setting it back down and talking to the woman again. But his words were cut short as he clenched his chest. The woman reached out to him but he pushed her away and stood up, knocking his chair over. He put his free hand on the table to steady himself only to knock the mug off. It shattered on the floor just seconds before the man collapsed in pain. The woman stood over him screaming something that still sounded muffled. Godot clenched his hand over his own chest and trembled. He hadn't even realized it, but he had broken out in a cold sweat just watching the scene. Then he heard the woman as clear as day.

"DIEGO!"

Godot didn't even wait for the people to fade this time. He hurried back out to the hallway and slammed the door shut behind him. His heart was racing even more than when the ghostly director had attacked. "That. . . that was me," he stated as it dawned on him. "I died. . . but I'm not dead? What's happened to me? Why didn't I die?" Just as he caught his breath, he heard a phone ringing at the far end of the hallway. Nothing else seemed to hint at what he should do next and he figured that nothing could be worse than what he had just seen, so he followed the sound all the way to a room labeled "Nurse's Station," found the phone, and took it off the receiver. He thought about speaking but chose not to, worried that whatever was on the other line might recognize him.

"Welcome back," a shrill and demonic voice said, causing his whole body to tense up. "There's nothing you can do to save her. . ."

CLICK.

Godot hung up the phone slowly and tried to grasp the meaning behind the awful message. "Mia!"

It all came together and hit him like a wave against a cliff. The woman, the man, the poisoned coffee, even the hospital. Forgetting how difficult it was to move around, Godot rushed back out to the hallway and ran down the first flight of stairs, back to the second floor. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, all the way back to room 204 and didn't even hesitate to throw the door open. The room was different now. It looked clean and fresh like he had left it when he first woke from his five year coma. Sitting on the bed where he once slept was something that hadn't been there before. He picked it up and found that it was a picture of him and Mia from back when he first joined his law firm. They both looked so happy. "Kitten. . ."

Godot pulled out the cell phone he had found at the noodle house and dialed her old number without even thinking about it. It rang twice before, to his surprise, someone actually picked up.

"Diego. . ."

There was no mistaking it. It was her.

"You shouldn't have come here. . . But I'm glad you did. . ."

Hearing her voice made his heart sink and he could feel tears welling up beneath his visor. He wanted to talk to her. He wanted so desperately to say the words that he couldn't before. But nothing came out.

"Sorry for all the trouble. . ." she went on. Her gentle voice enveloping him in a soft embrace.

Godot smiled and light filled the room. He could feel her warmth all around him.

"Thank you. . ."

And the world faded into the light.

* * *

><p><strong>AN::**

**Shikola Krasno::**

**Voila! I wasn't kidding about my debut in my note back in chapter one. This is actually the first time I've tried my hand at writing fanfiction! Along with Shin's (Larry), Chiyo's chapter is pretty short in the game. And in an interesting side note: the character I replaced with Godot, Chiyo Kishibe, is actually an old woman! X) Mia's character is an old man too! But I had to get over that oddly aged gender-bender quickly since, honestly, the story just worked so nicely for Godot. For anyone familiar with Ace Attorney but not familiar with Godot, I HIGHLY recommend that you play Trials and Tribulations, not for the sake of understanding my story (though it would help), but for the sake of going through the most exciting and emotional trial in the series (which, yes, explains EVERYTHING about Godot). But for all the Godot fans who are upset with me for killing the one guy they so desperately hoped hadn't actually died, you'll definitely want to read on. The twists and turns of this emotional roller-coaster are far from over. Sadly (for me at least), I get to hand things back over to Melody yet again. I wrote more, I swear, it's just that I picked the stuff that all happens later. So for now I'll be passing the baton back to Melody! Hope you guys put up with us through to see my work again in Epilogue 1 (and yes, the 1 is important)!**

**Melody Canta :: **

**Adding to what Shikola was saying, if you know the game, you know we've definitely changed some stuff between Chiyo/Michio and Godot/Mia. And basically most of the characters. To be honest, there's not a lot we ended up keeping, now that I think about it . . . **

**Anyways, this chapter! Yay for Shikola getting a chapter finally! Her chapters will likely post a lot faster than mine did; she had time to work on them. I'm a big Godot fan, and I think she did him justice, so I'm happy with the chapter. This chapter also spawned a lot more jokes than it probably should have . . . Then again, we can't be too serious, can we? And just one note about the game: Shikola makes me play this chapter ALMOST EVERY TIME. I hate this chapter because Chiyo walks so slowly, especially on stairs. Lots and lots of stairs . . . **

**Anyways, next chapter is mine again, and it's a good amount done, so after the extensive beta-ing it'll have to go through (hint: it's a very important chapter), I'll have that posted ASAP.**

**EDIT :: Small grammatical typo fixed 3/30/14**


	6. The Lamentation

**WARNING: POSSIBLE TRIGGERS FOR SUICIDE**

**If you could be triggered by this, PLEASE do not read this chapter. If you're dying to know what happens, send a PM, and I would love to summarize for you what happens. Also know that Shikola and I are more than willing to talk if you need to, and that we're here! **

**Hold your hats, guys; this is a rough chapter.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five :: The Lamentation<strong>

Maya stood in the bedroom of Mia's house, looking at Adrian's letter for a long time. Why couldn't she remember major events in Mia's life? Or her own life, for that matter? Other than their recent encounter, how did she not remember this Mr. Armando—who must be the Diego in Mia's letter, she realized—despite the fact that he and Mia had been together? Had Mia just omitted that fact?

Diego Armando . . . what had happened to him? The man she'd seen in the doll house had to have been him (though the visor was an interesting fashion statement, if nothing else). So he was stuck like she and Edgeworth (and Larry, but, well, that hadn't ended too well for Larry). Why? What did he have to do with any of this?

In any case, she now had a new number to call. She had high hopes for this one, seeing as Mia had led her straight to it. Maybe it was the number that would finally get her out! She flipped the phone open and dialed Adrian's number.

_997-116-286_

Everything faded quickly, the familiar tile floor of the hospital appearing in her vision first. Adrian must have worked at Kuromiya Hospital. The same hospital Diego Armando had been admitted to. Maybe he had more to do with things than she'd originally thought.

She looked around the room, trying to figure out exactly where in the hospital she was. There were rows of tables and chairs, lunch trays stacked on one side of the room. There was a TV and stand in the corner. This had to be the hospital cafeteria.

She gave a shudder. She hadn't really liked the hospital much the first time around. And, worse still, she didn't remember seeing a cafeteria sign her first time here, meaning that she was likely on the third floor.

There had been faces in the walls on the third floor.

She sat down in a chair. No way she was going out there.

A cell phone rang in the silence, reminding her of her priorities. Mia had sent her here. There had to be something here then. She was sure of it.

The sound came from the television cabinet. She opened it to find a blue cell phone this time. She flipped it open. "Hello?"

_"I wanted to help. I tried to help her." _Maya had only heard Adrian Andrews distraught a few times, but this seemed to be the worst of them all. The call ended, and Maya turned around only to be greeted by the woman in question. Maya gasped, but Adrian only turned around, glancing over her shoulder and going through the door.

Should she follow? Maya wasn't quite sure, but there didn't seem to be much she could do sitting around here, so she gritted her teeth and followed Nurse Adrian into the hallway.

The faces were absent, the only ghostly thing in the entire hallway walking down the hall slowly, glancing over her shoulder every few steps to check that Maya was following. The spirit medium let the door slam behind her, realizing what was about to happen a second too late.

The wind from the door blew the candle flame out.

How often had Aunt Morgan scolded her during her training? Candle flame goes out easily, "and it could become dangerous for the medium," Maya recited, feeling foolish. Now she was in the dark with a bunch of ghosts who probably wanted her dead for various reasons. Adrian glowed, and she didn't look like she was going to attack any time soon, so it only made sense to keep following her.

The hallway ended in a T, like the previous floors, and Adrian rounded a desk on the right side of the corner, phasing through the door. Maya opened the door, delighted when she was met with fluorescent lighting. Finally, power! Electricity! Apparently not every power line in the spirit world was down.

The room looked like an office, with a desk and computer in one corner and a stainless steel table with a whiteboard in the other. Adrian was almost transparent in the light, bent over a piece of paper on the table. One hand was pressed over her mouth and her shoulders shook. Maya approached, reaching one hand out instinctively to rest on the older woman's shoulder, but Adrian vanished suddenly, leaving the paper behind. Maya leaned over it and began to read.

* * *

><p><em>Maya Fey was brought into the hospital today. Things seem very grim for everyone, but especially for little Pearl. She won't talk to anyone. I know Maya and Pearl are close, so this must be very hard for her. Still, she smiled a little when I brought her a cookie from the cafeteria, so I'm sure she must just be in shock after what happened.<em>

* * *

><p>More about Maya's supposed hospital visit, huh? She closed her eyes, trying to imagine why she couldn't remember the hospital at all, but abruptly gave up when no explanations came.<p>

Still, of course Pearly would be upset after seeing her injured. It couldn't be too bad though, right?

Right?

The lights suddenly went out, bathing the room in the same darkness that the hallway was experiencing. Maya groaned. Time to find a light again, and quick.

Priority number one: Find a light.

Priority number two: Get out of here.

Priority number three: Make sure Pearly is okay.

Her hand fumbled in her pocket for the matches, but they weren't there. The man who had stolen the letter at Mia's house . . . she hadn't thought about the matches when she was checking her pockets then. Had he taken them?

She searched for the doorknob in the darkness, her hand finding it after some difficulty. She turned it, stopping abruptly when something played behind her. The Steel Samurai theme? She turned to see a mechanical Steel Samurai toy taking small steps towards the door, his entire body lit up. Talk about awesome. How did she _not_ have one of those?

But wait. How was it playing?

She realized it a second too late. The toy died in its tracks, leaving Maya to try to salvage the batteries that must be powering it. She had to scrabble at the plastic to find the battery cover, exchanging the batteries with the ones in her flashlight. She flicked the "On" switch.

No luck. They were dead.

But now she had an idea. Noises meant either phones or batteries, both of which were good from her point of view. She didn't have to go into every single room: as long as she heard noise, she could enter for something she might need.

Her resolve renewed, she exited the room and walked towards the glowing stair sign, pressing her ear to the doors she passed in the hope she might hear something.

"Poor Maya Fey, presumed dead. You left her all alone, you know." The voice came from behind her, and Maya jumped, whirling back around to see Dahlia walking down the hall towards her. Like all of the ghosts, she seemed to glow as well, but there was something that _didn't_ look dead about Dahlia. Perhaps it was that her words weren't slow and tortured like the others. Or maybe it was that where the others seemed to have blank, white eyes, Dahlia's gaze was sharp, her irises rimmed with a tiny sliver of red. "Everyone leaves her. Everyone _always_ leaves her."

"What are you talking about?" Maya demanded, taking a step back. There was something different about Dahlia this time compared to the last. Last time, she had been weak, and she'd spoken to Maya with such compassion that the spirit medium had wanted her to stay. This time, their conversation had barely started, and Maya wanted out.

Dahlia gave her girlish giggle, tilting her head coyly. "You don't remember? Well, I suppose you wouldn't. Just like her."

"Just like who?"

Hands rose out of the ground suddenly, the hallway filled with groans of "Dahlia . . . our precious Dahlia." Before she could react, they grabbed her legs, forcing a scream from her mouth as they tried to pull her into the hole created in the tile. She fought, eventually freeing a leg so she could kick the rest away. She stumbled back, falling and scooting away from the hands as quickly as she could before getting to her feet again. Her vision flickered and went red, the effect of massive spiritual power being released. Dahlia walked towards her slowly, the disembodied hands gone. The power surrounding her was . . . enormous. If she touched Maya with even a single finger, Maya's soul would be obliterated completely.

But that was impossible! Dahlia hadn't had any spiritual power herself. Still, Maya turned and sprinted towards the stairs. The doors slammed shut in front of her, her body colliding against them, stunning her momentarily. She rattled the handles and threw her shoulder into the split, as Dahlia got closer and closer. She wasn't stopping—she was a mere foot from Maya, leaning forward, one lock of hair hovering an inch away from Maya's shoulder. The energy suddenly calmed, the tension in the entire room defusing instantly. "Not yet, Maya Fey," Dahlia said, her voice barely above a whisper. "You're going to see her jump."

The door flung open, and Maya careened downwards, falling down the stairs suddenly in front of her. Her back slammed against the wall, and once she wasn't seeing stars, she looked up to see that Dahlia was gone.

What had she meant? Who was she talking about?

_Who_ was going to jump?

She brushed herself off, rubbing at her scraped up knees and elbows. If there was any question that what she had been experiencing wasn't real in some way, this was her wake up call.

This was real.

She needed to get out of here.

First things first. She needed a light. She wasn't about to face Dahlia in the dark again.

She took the stairs down to the second floor, listening in at the doorways. She could hear mumbling in Room 204, but when she entered, it was the strange blue light and her phone vibrated. She took it out and hit the record button.

_"His hair is starting to turn white."_ That was Iris; Maya could tell from the last recording.

_"The doctors say that's a good thing. His body is conserving energy to fight the poison."_ That was Mia. Despite her positive words, she sounded skeptical.

_"Ah."_

There was a silence, and Maya almost closed the phone, but then Mia spoke again. _"Maya's coming tomorrow."_

_"I'll come see him tomorrow for you."_

_"I feel so bad for missing a day. I just don't want Maya to see him like this."_

_"You should take a day off anyways. You don't look like you're feeling so well lately."_

_"I'm fine."_ Mia's tone was clipped, and the recording stopped on that last tense exchange. They had to be talking about Diego Armando.

She couldn't even remember meeting him. The number of gaps emerging in her memory was alarming.

She exited the hospital room, continuing down the hall. As she got closer to the end of the hallway, she could hear something playing. It sounded like some talk-radio station.

A radio! The power was out here, so it had be running on battery power! She ran towards it, finding it in a chair.

It took her more time to find the battery slot, as she was going by feel, but eventually she tipped the batteries into her hand. A quick moment later and she was turning on her flashlight.

She had light again!

She turned to walk towards the stairs, relieved by her newfound ability to see, but Adrian was in the hallway already, paused in front of Room 202. "I wanted to help her," she said when Maya approached. She disappeared a second later, leaving Maya to enter the room. On the bed was a note just like the previous one in the office.

* * *

><p><em>Pearl's mother is out on bail. It's the happiest I've seen Pearl since all of this started. Morgan even gave her a cell phone so that she could call whenever she wanted. She's going back to Kurain Village, but Pearl wants to stay here with Mr. Wright at least until Maya wakes up. <em>

_Maya is in a medically-induced coma. We're keeping her sedated until her brain activity regulates again, though the doctor seems a bit skeptical. _

* * *

><p>Aunt Morgan was out of jail? Talk about bad news. But it made Pearly happy, so perhaps it was good on some level.<p>

There didn't seem to be much more in Room 202, so Maya exited, only to hear barking coming from the Operating Room. Missile jumped at her the minute she opened the door. "Miss Burgers!"

"Missile!" She picked him up so he could lick her face enthusiastically.

"You're back!" He stilled suddenly, looking at her with his head cocked. "Why are you back? Isn't it creepy in here?"

She put him down so she could take one of Adrian's notes from her pocket. She'd already seen enough to know what Adrian wanted her to do. "I'm looking for these."

"Ooh ooh! I'm good at looking! Pick me, pick me!" He interspersed barks with his pleas.

Maya nodded, not about to turn down the offer for company. "Let's look together!" Already she could see one of the notes on a cart behind him. "Found one!"

* * *

><p><em>Pearl seems really happy to talk to Morgan. She does it a lot these days, which is nice. She was very quiet before, but now she's talking to everyone again. I've been teaching her how to send text messages too.<em>

_Maya is still sedated. The doctor is starting to worry about her brain activity._

* * *

><p>"What does it say?" Missile asked, but Maya shook her head.<p>

"Let's find the next one."

Adrian was walking into Room 204 when they exited the Operating Room, so they went there next, Missile scratching at the door and barking until Maya opened it. Adrian was once again gone (which seemed to disappoint the ghost dog), but there was another note on the bed.

* * *

><p><em>Pearl broke the cell phone today. She threw it out the window, which seems very unlike her. Then again, ever since she broke it, she's been so upset that she won't leave Maya's side. I wonder what happened. I offered Pearl some time on the hospital phones, but the policy is only twenty minutes per night. She hasn't taken me up on the offer yet though, so she must still be angry about whatever happened.<em>

* * *

><p>Pearly didn't sound like she was doing so well in these notes. Then again, if the situation was reversed, Maya couldn't imagine that she would do well either. But what exactly had happened here? Pearl chucking something out a window? Why would she do something like that? And what had instigated it?<p>

Missile whined and pawed at her leg. "Let me find one! I want to find one!"

Maya nodded, suppressing a chuckle at the dog's enthusiasm. "Next one is yours."

They left Room 204 and Missile went bounding down the hall before taking the stairs back up to the third floor. Maya thought of Dahlia, opening her mouth to protest before she realized that the stairs to the first floor were blocked off by a ton of junk in the stairwell. She pushed at a couch that had somehow ended up overturned, but it barely budged.

"Are you coming?" Missile yipped, padding down the steps towards her.

"When did this happen?" she asked, motioning towards the mass in front of her.

The dog cocked his head. "About the time I saw Mr. Ruffles leave!"

"Mr. Ruffles?" That could only be one person. "You mean Edgeworth?"

"Who's Edgeworth?"

"Um . . . Miles Edgeworth?" she tried, wondering if the Demon Prosecutor had even bothered to introduce himself to the dog.

"He has ruffles." Missile didn't seem to know much more than that.

"When did he leave?"

"After you left."

"How long ago was that?"

Missile blinked, and Maya realized she was trying to get a time out of a dog. Hell, she didn't even wear a watch; Missile wearing one was out of the question.

"Let's just go," she suggested, walking up the stairs to the third floor. "Where to?" she asked, but he was already bounding towards the cafeteria when she got to the top. "I was just in there! There isn't one—" She promptly shut up when she realized there was indeed a note sitting on the table. How had she missed it? She'd still had her candle at that point, so it wasn't like she was in the dark, and she had been in the cafeteria until Adrian had led her out.

"Aren't you going to pick it up?" Missile asked when she didn't move.

She nodded, stepping towards the note and beginning to read.

* * *

><p><em>Pearl finally agreed to call her mother on the hospital phone, but Morgan hasn't answered. I tried calling her to tell her that Maya's condition is improving, but I had to leave a voicemail. Hopefully the phone lines are down or something—Pearl told me that cell service in Kurain Village is brand new, so perhaps some work is getting done. If she doesn't pick up in a few days, I'll have to write her a letter.<em>

_Pearl still won't say much to anyone. I hope it's just worry for her mother and cousin that's making her so quiet._

* * *

><p>Maya put the note down, wondering what would happen if she called the number for Kurain Village. Her worry was starting to mount. Surely one phone call to Pearly wouldn't hurt anyone. She flipped the phone open, realizing that she didn't have a signal, and moving towards the window to find one.<p>

The phone vibrated.

Maya pressed the Record button, wondering what she was about to hear.

_"I don't think you're telling the truth!" _ A rare Mia moment—Maya could hear the frustration in her older sister's voice.

_"Calm down, kitten."_ It was that man's voice—Diego Armando!

_"How can you be so calm? She's lying to our faces!"_

_"I—I'm not lying_." That was Dahlia at her worst—Mia had told her about the innocent facade their cousin adopted whenever she was in trouble. _"I don't know why you won't believe me!"_

_"Because you're lying. But it's time to take a deep breathe. We've been arguing so long that my coffee's gone cold."_

_"Do you ever think of anything besides your coffee?"_ Mia asked.

_"Of course. I'll be right back after I get a new cup. Play nice, kittens." _There was the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, then a door opening and closing.

_"Just come clean now, Dahlia."_

_"You can't save him, you know."_ Maya recognized that tone as the same airy voice she'd used when she'd told Maya, "You're going to see her jump."

_"What are you talking about?"_

A giggle. _"You'll see. Now, back to my supposed guilt. Where's your proof?"_

_"You drove Terry Fowles to his death before he could reveal it!"_

_"And where's your proof of that?"_

The door opened and closed again. _"Now, where were we?"_ Diego asked.

_"Mr. Armando, you don't look so well,"_ Dahlia said sweetly.

_"That's what happens when I don't get my allotted cups of coffee. I'm one behind." _There was a pause, a gulp, and then the sound of ceramic being set on the table. _"Again, let's get back to business. Calm down, kitten; I'm fi—"_ There was a sudden commotion, with lots of sounds. Ceramic shattering, the chair being pushed back, masculine-sounding groaning, and above all of it—

_"DIEGO!"_ Mia screamed.

The recording cut off.

What had she just heard? Had Dahlia attacked _him_? Unlikely, considering their sizes. He would have been able to bat her off with ease. Had _he_ attacked Dahlia? But he was the one telling Mia to calm down!

What was going on here?

Missile yipped, bringing her out of her revelations. "What's wrong?" she asked.

He barked again. "I hear someone!"

Maya opened the door a crack to see Adrian walking into a room across the hall. "Let's follow her," she said, walking after the nurse, Missile on her heels.

She led them into Room 301, the now-predictable note lying on the bedside table.

* * *

><p><em>They've decided Maya's condition is stable enough to try to wake her from her coma. I had expected Pearl to be ecstatic about the news—everyone else was—but if anything, she seems more solemn than before. Mr. Wright told me she refused to go to the hospital to visit today. I'm hoping whatever is going on with the girl is going to get better soon.<em>

* * *

><p>Pearl wasn't happy? Had Maya done something to make Pearl angry at her? So angry that she wanted Maya dead?<p>

Was that even possible?

Missile started barking, going through the door, and Maya ran after him, afraid to get left alone. The sound of a phone ringing echoed from down the hall, and together, they ran towards the office Adrian had led Maya to with the first note. The phone rang from inside of the office, and Missile went through the door without waiting for her to open it. Maya picked up the phone as soon as she could hear it, hoping to hear Pearl's voice from the desk phone.

_"Open an ER! Patient's BP is dropping!"_

_"She's coding!"_

_"We need to get her warmed up ASAP!"_

_"She's losing too much blood! Hurry!"_

_"Status!"_

_"She's hypothermic. Broken ribs and a knife through her abdomen."_

_"How long?"_

_"An hour, at least. They found her at the top of Hazakura Mountain."_

_"ER Two. Go."_

There wasn't much question as to who they were talking about, after the doctor's evaluation she had picked up the first time in the hospital. Maya pressed her hand to her stomach again, half-expecting to see a knife in it.

There was a flash of light, blinding her, but when she opened her eyes, Adrian was right in front of her, a business card on the table between them. Maya picked it up with trembling fingers.

* * *

><p><em>Director Kuromiya — 997-447-619<em>

* * *

><p>What kind of business card was this? It was written in crayon, an almost-unrecognizable stethoscope drawn next to the number.<p>

Still, it was a phone number. Maya pulled out her phone, patting Missile on the head. "I'll be back soon, so wait for me, okay?" The dog barked his agreement, and Maya dialed.

_997-447-619._

Maya closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was in an almost identical office, the only difference being that the Steel Samurai toy was gone. Adrian was already here, a note on the desk.

* * *

><p><em>Maya's condition has worsened. The doctors can't bring her out of the coma yet, and no one is taking the news well, but Pearl seems to be taking it the worst. She's started visiting Maya again, but she hasn't stopped sobbing since she arrived hours ago. If I was right in my last note, I think I know why. <em>

_This has turned into such a tragedy._

* * *

><p>Last note? Maya pulled out the most recent note, but there was no reason as to why Pearl might be crying. Had she missed a note somewhere?<p>

A cell phone rang, and Maya quickly identified the source as one of the desk drawers. She pulled it open, and a ghost lunged out at her, knocking her back. "THIS IS MY HOSPITAL, I SWEAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" he was screaming, his hands twitching as he took hold of her shoulders. "IT'S MIIIIIIIIINE!"

Maya screeched, quickly punching him. He fell back, vanishing. His words, "it is, I swear," lingered in the air even after he left.

The door clicked and swung open slowly, and Maya grabbed the now-silent cell phone, checking for messages again and finding none, before exiting.

She recognized the first floor almost immediately. The evil vending machine was at the opposite corner, and the entrance to the hospital was on her right. The tiny waiting area was empty, and she sat down for a moment, one hand on her heart as she glanced upwards.

The fluorescent lights, innocuous until now, brought on memories. Loud voices echoed around her, speaking in medical jargon quicker than she could understand. Her gaze, blurred by something that wasn't quite tears, watching as lights went by, almost looking like the same light over and over as if she were stuck in a loop.

She had been here. She remembered this hospital somehow. She'd been semi-conscious as they'd rushed her to the ER, Nick in the ambulance with her, but she hadn't been able to see his expression clearly. Maybe it hadn't Nick at all but someone with similarly shaped hair and a blue suit.

No, she was certain it was him. She could remember him letting go of her hand and his voice as he whispered, "I'm so sorry, Maya," before she was wheeled into the hospital.

How had she forgotten this? And why couldn't she remember anything after this?

Had she . . . died?

Her cell phone rang, snapping her out of those thoughts. "Hello?" she said, answering it. She hadn't received a call on her cell phone since the school, if she remembered correctly.

_"Um . . . hello."_

"Edgeworth!" she said, surprised.

There was a pause. "_Maya_?" he finally asked.

"What are you calling for? Not that I didn't want you to call or anything, but, uh, how did you get this number?" She was so relieved to hear Edgeworth's voice that she was rambling, but she couldn't have cared less. He was still alive (or so she assumed), which meant that he could still help her.

And he could still get out.

He cleared his throat. _"I was trying to transport back to the hospital. No matter; I have another number. I'm actually glad I got ahold of you."_

"You are?" Edgeworth was happy to hear from her? And he was _admitting _it? Something wasn't quite right.

_"Yes. Listen to me very carefully. The ghosts at Kuromiya Hospital are more dangerous than anywhere else I've been. I think that the hospital might be the origin point for all of this."_

"Origin point?" Maya asked, confused.

_"The place where everything converges. The hospital has to be the source of all of this."_

"Source? What do you mean?"

_"You remember Hazakura Temple, yes? Maya, after that, Pearl—AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_ Edgeworth gave out such a shrill shriek that Maya dropped the phone, diving for it a moment later. Her stomach dropped, and she fumbled around until she had the phone oriented correctly before pressing it to her ear.

"Edgeworth?" she asked.

The other line was silent.

She left it for a minute or two, hoping that Edgeworth would pick it up again and resume their conversation (hopefully also informing her that he had developed a fear of spiders or something equally harmless and that was what had caused him to flip out), but nothing changed.

Something could be killing Edgeworth this moment.

All because she had the phone he had tried to transport to.

She pressed a hand to her mouth, trying not to fall apart now. Had this all been her fault? Was she all alone now?

Was there no one left to help her?

"I wonder what's happening to him right now?" The sentence was completed with the familiar girlish giggle, and Maya shut the phone, turning towards the voice.

"I take it you know," she said cautiously.

Dahlia giggled again. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"What do you want, Dahlia?"

The ethereal beauty shrugged, a piece of hair falling over her shoulder delicately. "Do you know what's happened yet? Do you know about the tragedy?"

"You mean Hazakura Temple? Yes."

But Dahlia merely laughed. "Oh, Maya. You still don't get it, do you? You're running out of time."

"Running out of time to do what?" she demanded.

Hands emerged from the floor again, moaning the familiar, "our sweet Dahlia," but Maya knew what to do this time, turning and running down the hallway before one could grab her ankle.

"Tick tock," Dahlia said, suddenly appearing in front of the spirit medium. Once again, she flashed with massive spiritual energy, enough to make Maya's vision turn red. Maya screamed, throwing her body to one side in order to avoid the she-devil and continuing to run. "Tick tock. Tick. _Tock._"

At the final word, the butterflies that usually fluttered around Dahlia flamed, flying towards Maya like homing missiles. She ducked her head, throwing herself behind the counter of the nurse's station.

"Oh, Maya. Time. Is. Running. Out," Dahlia said softly. Maya could see her toned calves and butterfly-adorned shoes before they began to fade. They were almost completely gone when she heard the whispered words. "Tick tock."

Maya held her knees to her chest, trembling. What had just happened? What had Dahlia meant, the tragedy that had happened? What was she running out of time for?

The hair on the back of her neck prickled, and she felt like someone was watching her. She looked up to find Adrian in front of her, expression blank. There was a note on the table behind her, and Maya reached up, sliding it down to her level to read.

* * *

><p><em>Pearl hasn't been at the hospital for the last few days. Mr. Wright says she isn't sleeping or eating, just crying. I tried contacting Morgan again, but to no avail, so I sent a letter to Kurain Village in the hopes that she might receive it. Unfortunately, when I contacted the Mystic Althea on Maya's Emergency Contact List, she told me that Morgan has been missing for several days now. <em>

_Maya's condition has begun to improve again, so the doctors are talking about waking her. Hopefully she has some light to shine upon everything that's happened._

* * *

><p>Maya paused, her entire body feeling devoid of energy. Pearl wasn't visiting her? Of all people, she had expected Pearly to be the one to never leave her side. What had happened? And why?<p>

She got to her feet, her knees feeling shaky, and froze. Across from her, sitting in a chair in the waiting area with her head bowed, was Dahlia. She was staring at her hands, the V-shaped braids extending from her widow's peak fully visible. Maya gasped, but Dahlia didn't react.

Now was not the time to find out why.

With exaggerated slowness, she crept around the corner of the desk, only relaxing when there was a wall between them. She sighed, closing her eyes in triumph, only to scream when she turned. Adrian was inches away, her miserable expression unchanged. Maya crowded back as the nurse turned and walked through a nearby door, tossing the standard glance over her shoulder at Maya.

"Haven't you heard of personal space," the spirit medium grumbled, shining the flashlight at the plate next to the door. "Consultation Room." The same room she had first arrived in. She opened the door, unsurprised to see the bleached floors and messy desk. Her medical records were gone though, and the thought of them made her stomach sink. Instead, where they had been, was a note. Maya held her breath, torn between wanting to read it and not wanting to know any more.

With a sigh, her fingers trembling, she held the flashlight over the paper and began to read.

* * *

><p><em>I don't think that Pearl can take much more of this.<em>

_It's all my fault._

_Nurse Cykes, Maya's nurse on the night shift, confided in me today what she had thought happened—well, now, what she knew had happened. She and Pearl had a therapy session last night; Nurse Cykes is good at that kind of stuff. Anyways, Pearl told her everything she knew, and Nurse Cykes thought it would be a good idea for me to know too. Inside, I knew we shouldn't have been talking about it in the hospital, but it didn't seem too bad, and then Pearl heard us talking, and now she's ignoring both of us. I know we shouldn't have, but I just wanted to help._

_She's ignoring everyone. Now she sits by Maya's bedside silently._

_I don't know what to do._

* * *

><p>Pearl . . .<p>

What had happened to Pearly? Something wasn't right; she hadn't had this many problems when Morgan was sent to jail. What was different about this time?

"I couldn't help her." Adrian's voice made her turn towards the door. The nurse's shoulders were slumped, one hand pressed against her chest. "I couldn't help her, not when she needed me most. I couldn't help her!" Her voice raised to a keening wail and she phased through the door, leaving Maya to run after her.

"Wait!"

Adrian was sprinting down the hall, her voice quiet but fervent as she said, "No, don't let me be too late!"

She turned the corner, jabbing at the elevator button and entering what looked like a closed door, Something hit the floor and jangled as she disappeared.

It was a key. Maya turned it, orienting the tag so she could read it. "Nurse's Station," it had etched on it.

There were only three possibilities as to where the key could unlock. Trying to ignore Dahlia, who still wasn't responding, she rounded the L-shaped desk, shining the flashlight on the plaque next to the door.

"Director 's Office."

Only two more floors to check then. She pulled out the cell phone, dialing Adrian's number.

_997-116-286._

When she opened her eyes again, she was in the hallway of the second floor. Adrian's cell phone was on the floor next to her, and she picked it up, before walking to the room in the same location as the director's office, just a floor up.

Bingo. The Nurse's Station.

She tried to turn the knob only to find out that it was indeed locked. Carefully, she took the key from the pocket of her robe, inserting it into the lock and turning. The door opened and she sighed in relief, stepping into the office.

There was a note sitting exactly where she'd found Adrian's first note.

* * *

><p><em>I think Pearl was the one who did this to Maya.<em>

_I don't know exactly what happened, or even why, but there are some things that don't quite add up. There are lacerations on Pearl's arms that match the ones on Maya's. There's also been this strange air about her lately, a strange look in her eye that I didn't recognize as guilt until I thought about Celeste the other day and looked at myself in the mirror._

_She's carrying around some sort of guilt when it comes to Maya._

_I hope that I'm wrong. But then again, after hearing a bit of Pearl's fight with Morgan over the phone the other day, well . . ._

_I'm pretty sure that I'm right._

* * *

><p>This note had to have come before everything. This was Adrian's guess as to what had happened, the one she kept referring to in later notes. But . . . no.<p>

Maya's legs suddenly gave out from under her, and she sank to the cold tile floor. Pearl Fey? Trying to attack her? That . . . that was impossible. Right?

It all came back in flashes. The knife, the slender hand holding it. The chocolate brown eyes staring at her, those eyes that she had thought were from the devil.

The devil had light brown hair. Sure, she'd tied it back into braids, but there was no question. As soon as the image came, it stayed, imprinting itself on the back of her eyelids.

Dahlia hadn't been the one holding the knife. Dahlia Hawthorne was dead. Someone had to have channeled her.

And there was only one person on that mountain that had light brown hair.

Pearl had channeled Dahlia.

Pearl had stabbed Maya. Broken her ribs. Left her huddling in the snow, eyes screwed shut as if it would warm her up.

The one behind everything . . . had been Pearl Fey.

The realization kicked her in the stomach. How could have this happened? Sure, Dahlia was obviously a vengeful spirit, but Pearl was a strong medium. She shouldn't have been able to do anything against Pearl's will.

Still, there was no question. Even though the cold, dispassionate stare and cruel smile curved on the assailant's lips hadn't been Pearl's, the body had been.

That explained everything.

Why she had sunk into such a depression. Why she had stopped visiting Maya at the hospital. Why what Athena had talked with Adrian about had upset her.

Despite knowing all of this, her heart ached for her cousin. There was no way that Pearl could have meant any of it. Maya was still alive, which meant that something inside of Pearl had rebelled. If it had been completely Dahlia, there likely would have been no body left to find.

The room was too small and too warm all of a sudden. Maya felt claustrophobic. She got to her feet, exiting the Nurse's Office after shoving the note in her pocket.

The elevator dinged, and Maya suddenly remembered that Adrian had been going up the elevator on the first floor. There was no way it was just stopping now though, was there?

She couldn't see anything, but she could hear the panicked breathing, and the "No, no, no! Hurry up!"

That was definitely Adrian.

Adrian had led her through the hospital, and if there was something she was so panicked at, it was likely worth knowing.

She had to go up to the third floor.

Maya sprinted down the hall. She was just taking the final step up to the third floor when she saw Adrian run into the Computer Lounge, whimpering the entire way. Throwing the door open, she saw Adrian huddled over the single computer that was on, her form dimmed by the artificial blue light the screen gave out. There were tear tracks down her pale face, and she was pushing her glasses up so she could wipe at her eyes.

"Adrian?" Maya asked, taking a tentative step forward.

"I'm too late," the nurse sobbed.

"Too late for what?" she asked, but Adrian was already fading away, and the only thing that lingered was the sound of her sobs.

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she rounded the table to look at the computer screen. On it was an open email from Pearl, a small paragraph in the body.

* * *

><p><em>It's all my fault. I'm so sorry. For everything. I caused this entire situation, and now it's time for me to pay for what I've done.<em>

* * *

><p>Pay?<p>

Pay for what she'd done?

Oh god, what had happened to—

The memory made her stumble, grabbing onto the desk for support as she remembered the conversation she'd had with Nick after she'd woken up in the hospital.

* * *

><p><em>"You don't look so great,"<em> she'd croaked out, happy to see him nonetheless.

He really didn't. He was wearing a grey hoodie that he seemed to swim in, and the dark circles under his eyes almost looked like bruises. _"Maya . . . I don't know how to say this."_

_"Say what? Honestly, you should look a lot happier than you do right now."_

_"It's Pearl."_

She'd frozen immediately. He never called her Pearl. It was always Pearls; he'd teased once that he'd only call her Pearl when she was eighty-five years old and in a nursing home. _"What happened?"_

_"She—"_ He broke off suddenly, and her heart thudded painfully in her chest.

_"Just tell me what happened to her, Nick!"_

He looked away, and his expression was more miserable than the one he'd been wearing the first time they'd met, where they had both stumbled upon Mia's dead body. _"Maya, Pearl is dead. She jumped off of the roof of the law office."_

_"What?"_ A wave of nausea passed over her. _"No, that can't be right. Not Pearly. No, this all has to be a joke, and it's not funny."_ She'd looked up at him, waiting for his expression to change, but it didn't; she just looked away, his face solemn. _"No. No, I won't accept this! This didn't happen! Not Pearly, not her, she'd never do something like that."_

Her voice had broken on the last phrase, and he'd finally looked up in concern. _"Maya, you just woke up. You need to take it easy—"_

_"No! No, I won't—I can't—No."_ She finally broke down crying, and he'd sat down on the edge of her bed, hugging her gently to avoid injuring her further.

* * *

><p>She sat down in a nearby chair, her eyes wide. Pearl had . . . jumped. She'd committed suicide.<p>

No, not Pearly.

She fought to keep her head up, but everything came crashing down on her. She'd been the cause of everything. She hadn't been able to save Larry, despite the fact that he'd been relying on her. And then Edgeworth, who might be dead at this moment (actually, if she was being honest, he was _probably_ dead) because she'd had the cell phone he'd tried to call. And what about Diego Armando, who she hadn't seen again, but she'd said she'd help him too, and then he'd disappeared. And Nick.

Everything, all of this . . .

Tears blurred her vision as she stared at the screen, still displaying those four simple sentences.

_It's all my fault._

_I'm so sorry._

_For everything._

_I caused this situation, and now it's time for me to pay for what I've done._

No, Pearly hadn't done anything. If she'd been stronger, if she'd thought faster, she could have prevented what Dahlia had done to her.

Then Pearl would still be alive.

So it wasn't Pearl's fault.

It was Maya's.

She sobbed into her hands. If only she'd been stronger, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe they'd all be sitting around Nick's office a decade later, having burgers and talking about the random developments in their lives.

Like Pearl, Maya would have to pay for what she had done.

"She's waiting for you." The voice made her look up, and she realized that Dahlia was leaning against the doorframe. "She's not gone yet."

"What do you mean?"

"She hasn't jumped yet. She's in the waiting area of the hospital." There was something terribly wrong about the smile on Dahlia's lips, but in that moment, Maya couldn't have cared less. She opened her cell phone, dialing the phone on the first floor as fast as she could.

_997-446-619_.

She woke up in front of the waiting area, and when she opened her eyes, she could see the toe of Pearl's sandal in her peripheral vision. Immediately, she looked up, seeing Pearl sitting in the chairs where Dahlia had been sitting earlier, her head bowed exactly like her older sister had.

"Pearly!" Maya got to her feet, lunging towards the younger girl. "Pearly, please, you can't do this! It's not your fault, it's mine! Please don't do this!"

Pearl didn't react. Didn't even look up.

"Pearl!" she said sharply, tears beginning to fill her eyes again.

This time, Pearl stood, walking sluggishly towards the stairs.

"No! Pearly!" Maya shouted, her fingers extended towards her cousin. Her vision flashed red like it had with Dahlia though, and she retracted them quickly. If she was going to stop Pearl, she had to do it without touching her.

"We're not even in the right place," she mumbled to herself, trying to reassure herself that everything would be okay. She followed Pearl's slow pace as they walked up the stairs to the third floor, eventually ending up in front of Room 302. Pearl paused before the door opened on its own, wind gusting into their faces as light filtered in from the outside world.

"What?" Maya asked, stunned.

They were suddenly on the roof of the office building. The roof where the Wright and Co. Law Offices were.

_No._

Pearl was inches away from the edge, the spiritual energy finally fading as she got closer and closer.

"Pearly!" Maya shouted, and Pearl finally looked back over her shoulder before taking the final step over the edge of the building.

"NO!" The breath caught in Maya's throat as she threw herself forward, trying to catch Pearl before she fell, her body somehow going through Pearl's. The moment before she fell, she felt oddly weightless, her hand still extended forward to stop her cousin, seeing a flash of light purple from Pearl's robe as she tumbled over the edge of the building.

As she fell into the darkness, Pearl's small body suddenly morphed into the graceful, lithe form of Dahlia. She gave a giggle, her hand locking onto Maya's wrist. "You're out of time," she whispered, a predatory smile on her face.

Maya screamed, suddenly unable to move her body. "PEARLY!" she shouted, wanting to squirm, to twist out of Dahlia's grip. "PEARLY! PLEASE, SOMEONE! ANYONE! HELP!"

Dahlia giggled again, disappearing just in time to avoid Maya's untimely collision with the ground.

* * *

><p><strong>AN::**

**Shikola Krasno::**

**Ha! Welcome to the beginning of the end. . . of the middle! So glad you stuck around this long. Now do me a favor and don't hate us, okay? Naturally, this isn't the ending. In fact, next up is my epilogue, which will tie up the loose ends in the other reality (albeit not in a nice way). Buuuut it's not the final epilogue! That won't be for another long time (I swear, someday this story will end). But seriously, don't hate us.**

**Anywho, the chapter's pretty straight forward, as far as ghosts go. The weird hospital director that came out of nowhere is the weird guy who impersonates the hospital director in the game. Celeste, for those of you who are like me and can't figure out who that is, was Adrian's friend who committed suicide (ringing a few bells?). Those were about it. Sorry for the unfortunate end to this whole ordeal. Honestly, in the beginning we were just going to write a neat little story with a tough but sweet ending. But I just had to question if something like this could be doable aaand SPLAT, we killed Maya. Oops. Try not to cry too much, but you might feel a little miserable after finishing this and reading the epilogue. But don't forget to keep reading! If you quit now you really will hate us!**

**Melody Canta ::**

**Sob. I cried while writing this. And then contemplated throwing myself off the roof of my apartment building.**

**DO NOT STOP HERE. I can't imagine stopping here, honestly. We'll have the first epilogue up as soon as Shikola finishes looking over it; I'm hoping to have it up in the next 24 hours, but no promises. It's got some work that needs to be done. That being said, you won't see me for another few chapters, so I'll poke my head in for A/Ns like Shikola has been doing right now. **

**This chapter was a doozy, honestly, and I'll apologize for the seemingly boring nature of it. I tried to spice things up with Dahlia. I like Dahlia. c: I also like Missile. This story needs a lot more Missile in it. c: LOTS MORE MISSILE! **

**Just don't hate me, okay?**

**Reviews! (Whoever writes the chapter will answer the reviews; we talk about them. c:)**

**Aviantei :: Thank you, my dear! And thanks for the pointing out the typo; I'm definitely not as good of a beta as Shikola is, apparently. If the Maya/Godot thing made you cry, well . . . I'm sorry? This didn't get any happier. And yes, Dangan Ronpa! We just have to finish this story first . . . eventually . . .**


	7. The Total Turnabout

**Epilogue :: The Total Turnabout**

Godot woke with a start. He opened his eyes to pure darkness and started to believe that that was that. He was gone. Dead at last but, unexpectedly, he didn't want that. For so long he would have welcomed the idea, but now it just seemed like he was quitting.

"Oh good, you're up," the guard officer said.

That's when Godot realized that he had just turned off his eyes. He smiled to himself, switched on his visor, and was greeted by the concrete ceiling of his cell. He sat up in his cot and sighed. Another day of living, and yet, it wasn't so bad. He stood up and went to the paper on his wall. He pressed his fingers against it and traced around where he could feel the crayon wax that shaped the invisible heart. It had always been an important symbol to him. It reassured him that love was a force that didn't have to be seen to be present.

"You've got an, uh, important visitor." The officer was oddly shifty.

Godot glanced at the clock out by the guard's desk and noted something weird. "Visiting hours aren't for a while, officer."

The guard nodded awkwardly and mumbled, "I really couldn't turn her away," as he held the door open further, revealing a teary eyed Pearl Fey.

"Kid!" Godot pressed against the bars of his cell. "What happened?"

The guard quickly unlocked his cell and she ran straight in and threw herself into Godot's open arms. "Mystic Maya. . . Mystic Maya, she. . ." Pearl sobbed uncontrollably against Godot's prison jumpsuit and just couldn't seem to get out what had happened. "Oh Mister Godot, it was so horrible!"

The guard rubbed his neck and explained, "There was an incident at that law agency where the Wright guy worked. That mystic girl I mentioned yesterday, she, uh. . ." Even the officer was having a tough time explaining it. "Listen, I know all of the details behind your sentence here. Maybe you wouldn't want to—"

"Just tell me," Godot demanded as Pearl pressed harder against him. "Please, I need to know."

The officer looked at the floor and said, "Maya Fey jumped off the roof of the building. We got the call from a resident, a young Trucy Wright, reporting the incident and we found this girl standing over the body in shock."

The world seemed to stop. "No." It was just too horrible to even imagine. If the officer hadn't told him and Pearl hadn't been there crying in his arms, Godot would have never accepted it. He fell to his knees with Pearl and her wails got louder. He wasn't there to protect Mia from murder, but for Maya to have jumped? He figured that it had to be Phoenix's fault. Nothing else would make sense. "How could that bastard Trite let this happen?"

"That's not all," the guard admitted, cutting Godot off mid-thought. "The little Wright also informed us of some strange activity going on inside the office, and by the time we arrived on scene, we found that Phoenix Wright and many of his colleagues had all died in their sleep."

Pearl screamed and covered her ears, unable to take on the enormity of the tragedy. None of it made any sense. The infamous defense attorney, dead? If one of them had committed suicide then maybe, just maybe, a few others would feel guilty and follow—which was a far-fetched thought at best. But for them all to just die in their sleep? That couldn't be right.

Pearl had told Godot about Phoenix's adopted daughter, Trucy, in the past. Godot was grateful that the young girl was still alive, but he couldn't imagine what _she_ must have been feeling. The sheer sense of dread had to be overwhelming. Who could she turn to? Even Pearl had somewhere to go, albeit there wasn't much that Godot could do for her from behind bars. "I don't understand." When Godot finally spoke, his voice didn't even sound like his own. "Who could have done this?"

"We, uh, didn't find any evidence of a break in. Miss Wright even assured us that no one other than the acquaintances of Mr. Wright had been there, and not a single one of them had any sort of motive for killing each other. We can't even figure out why the Fey girl jumped!" The guard seemed rather frustrated as he went over the facts. "Detectives Gumshoe and Skye are at the scene now looking for _anything_ that might explain what happened, but even forensics said that there were no traces of poison in their systems. It doesn't make any sense. They're all dead, but nobody killed them."

"You're wrong." Godot and the guard looked back at the cell block door to see a young woman with black hair and familiar braids stepping in.

"Iris?" It had been quite a while since Godot had seen Dahlia's sister—no, Pearl's sister. He never could get used to the how much she looked like Dahlia, but he knew that she was cut from entirely different cloth than her hell-spawned twin. "What are you doing here?"

She approached him slowly and explained, "I had such a strange dream last night. It was like I could feel my sister's presence everywhere and she had trapped me in a weird, twisted version of this world. But I saw them all. Feenie, Larry, Maya, and even you, Mr. Armando. And I know that it was more than a dream. I saw you as you tried to follow her through that hospital."

Godot thought about his dream and recalled the girl sitting in the waiting room. "That was you. . . But how?"

"I think Dahlia found a way to get her revenge," Iris confessed. Her conviction was suddenly gone. "And. . . I guess she succeeded."

"Ma'am, I don't know what you're suggesting, but Dahlia Hawthorne has been dead for quite some time," the officer pointed out.

"That didn't stop her before," Godot mumbled. "So are we really too late? There's nothing that we can do?"

Iris's eyes were full of tears as she shook her head. "Oh heavens, what has she done? This is so horrible. It's too horrible. Poor Feenie."

"There is one thing we can do."

Godot flinched when he heard the voice. He loosened his grip on Pearl and saw that her body had changed. She was hosting Mia's spirit, and even then Mia was teary-eyed. "Kitten. I'm so sorry. Then that dream. . . No. . . It wasn't a dream. . . I should have gone with her. Maya needed my help!"

"There was nothing that you could have done then," Mia assured him. "You were in the same world at the beginning, but I had to pull you away from there to keep you safe."

Godot covered his visor and fought back the tears. "I can't accept that. I could have saved her."

Mia cupped her hands over his cheeks and gently forced him to look her in the eyes. "I'm so sorry, Diego, but there was nothing you could do. I can offer one thing though. One single chance at changing everything."

"Please. I'll do anything."

"I'm afraid you still won't be able to stay with her, but I can turn back time just to when everyone first entered Dahlia's world."

Godot held her hands tightly and asked, "How?"

Mia-Pearl glanced over at Godot, "You still have it, don't you? That's how I was able to protect you."

Godot hurriedly went to his cot and dug out the purple magatama from under the sheets. "Your magatama. I've kept it close all these years."

"And I'm so glad that you did. If Phoenix had only kept his. . . No. . . Thank heavens he gave it to little Trucy. If not. . ." Mia closed her eyes and took a deep breath before removing the green magatama from her obi. "Trucy let Pearl take this when she came down here. Alone it doesn't have enough energy, but with Pearl's magatama, there should be just enough for me to pull everyone back in time. Unfortunately, I can't protect everyone's memories. But, as long as you keep my magatama close, maybe, just maybe, you'll remember just enough to help. And if you can't, well, as long as you keep that close, I'll be able to protect you."

It was a chance, but even Godot recognized the look of fear on Mia's face. "If no one remembers, how will they know to escape it?" he brought up, making her even more nervous. "What if this is doomed to happen again?" She started to shake. "This won't work twice, will it?"

Mia shook her head and bit her lip. "It's all that I can do to help, but it still might not be enough."

Iris gasped and yelped, "Wait!" Everyone stared at her and she quickly asked Mia, "How exactly did Dahlia's world work? Why did we see things that way? And all those people, they weren't really dead so why were they there?"

Mia thought about it and explained, "The world was composed of the memories of everyone who came in contact with the black magatama." Godot vaguely recalled the black item that Phoenix's friend had brought to the detention center. "Dahlia's presence warped the memories to suit her liking. The people who had been close to the magatama were conscious of their actions as they slept, and were able to move about by their own will until they faced their death."

"What?" Godot didn't know that side of the story. "Others died in that world? How can we even hope to save them?"

Mia looked pained and glanced at Iris. "That's right," Iris added. "But there was still a chance that they could wake up! I could feel my sister's hatred in there. She enjoyed killing the others, but they weren't her goal. Dahlia wanted Maya dead and that was that. Maybe, just maybe, if we managed to save Maya, the others would wake up!"

"But how?" Godot hated sounding so pessimistic, but clearly they had already failed to save Maya once so what were the chances that they could do it the second time around?

Iris closed her eyes and tried to focus. "There must have been someone who could have helped. . . That's it!" Her sudden outburst made Mia, Godot, and even the guard jump. "Their memories created one person who might have been able to affect things! Maya kept seeing him throughout, but it all had to be constructed from her idea of him!"

"Whom?" Godot asked. "Who did she see?"

"The guy who was always around to pick up Feenie's slack!"

As if on cue, the head prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth, entered the cell block with Trucy Wright clinging to his side. He was surprised to see so many people around. "What on earth his going on here?"

"Him!" Iris yelled. "He's the one!"

Edgeworth cleared his throat and looked right at Godot. "I understand that Pearls came to see you. I thought it best that I helped her in any way that I could, but she had already left the agency when I arrived.

"Miles!" Mia ran up to him and the surprised prosecutor tensed up. "Listen to me! We're going to fix this, but we need your help!"

"Fix this? P-Pearls, I'm sorry, but the dead can't come back to life," he reminded her. "This is a heavy loss for. . . for all of us. . . But there's no changing it now."

Iris pushed Mia aside and said, "Never mind, Mr. Edgeworth. Just tell me your phone number. For, uh, funerary reasons."

Edgeworth trembled so slightly that, if it wasn't for Godot's enhanced vision, no one might have noticed. The proper prosecutor adjusted the glasses on his face and pulled Trucy just a bit closer to his side. She was hiding her face beneath her top hat, completely unwilling to look up. "Y-yes. Of course. Such a task would naturally fall to me." He gave her a business card that he kept handy in his coat pocket and Iris took it hastily and pressed it against the magatama around her own neck.

"Okay. It might not let me keep all my memories, but my magatama should at least shield the idea that we need Mr. Edgeworth involved," she explained. "Please, Mia. This is our only chance."

"Only chance at what?" Edgeworth didn't seem amused by what was going on, but everyone else knew that it was time. "What are you planning? I won't have you defiling their good names!"

Mia pressed the two magatama together to form a sort of yin and yang and chanted a few words that didn't mean much to Godot. He held the purple magatama close to his chest and took a deep breath. A brief flash swallowed the world and in the next second, he was returning from the detention center just as he had before.

* * *

><p><strong>AN::**

**Shikola Krasno::**

**Oooookay. I will confess to writing this. Better yet, I'll apologize. Any of you who know the games hopefully know Pearls by now and if you do you know that I committed cardinal sin. Not so much in killing Maya (which hey, that was Canta's job sooo. . .) but in letting Pearls witness it. If anyone teared up during the first half of this, please know that I did while writing it. Anyways, as I said before, this is the FIRST epilogue! If you stop reading at just this I promise that you will walk away unsatisfied (and possibly determined to hunt us down for being too cruel). There is more on the way! And in the next half I will be writing more! So all of you Edgy fans upset at how little he's mentioned, stay tuned because if I didn't hint at it enough during the epilogue, he's extremely important in the next half!**

**Enough about that though. Hope you enjoy the second half of the story! Of course, like in Calling, you can always skip over the chapters that you already read, but you'll be missing some really big details (and they're not entirely the same as before, I promise). Of course, unlike the game, if you skip our chapters, not everything will make sense. So read at your own discretion!**

**Melody Canta ::**

**NOT MY CHAPTER! Tee hee. I'm not the one making everyone miserable. Well, not in this chapter anyways. I'm still getting arrows and pitchforks thrown my way from the last one. Cardinal sin, I know, I know. But hey, we're fixing everything! **

**Shikola is the head writer of the second half, and I'm just basically here to clarify things for a while. I'll be coming back with Maya in a few chapters, so everyone enjoy your reset and let's get started on the second half! がんばれ！**

**EDIT: WE HIT THE 24 HOUR MARK! c:**

**Reviews:**

**V340E419 :: (Melody) I'm so sorry I killed Mayaaaaaaa! Seriously, one of the hardest things I've ever written. Glad you're enjoying the story, and it'll be up to Shikola to bring on the next chapter. ;D**


	8. Turnabout Revisited

**Prologue :: Turnabout Revisited**

"It wasn't _that_ long ago that we stopping bringing in Mr. Blackquill, was it? You'd think there would be some new protocol for this sort of thing."

"Well, Blackquill's not the reason why we haven't used consultants lately. The supposed Bobby Fulbright was in charge of coordinating his consulting jobs as well as the trials that he actually took part in, remember?"

Corrupt officers and killer consultants. Godot couldn't believe what the world of law had come to. He still remembered just how disappointed he felt when he heard the news of Phoenix Wright's forced retirement. The only thing that gave him faith was Maya's insistence that it hadn't been his fault and the belief that Mia's student wouldn't just go out quietly. Unfortunately it took seven years to hear of the attorney in the news again and another year past that for the guy to get his badge back. Now almost nine years had passed since Godot formally met Phoenix, which meant more than a decade since Mia's death.

And fifteen years since he had first died.

"Don't be jealous, Nick!"

On Godot's way out, he was shocked to find that Phoenix himself was at the detention center. The aged attorney seemed to be bailing out his noisy old friend (and though Godot couldn't recall the useless lout's name, just seeing the man made him feel irritable).

It was so strange, however, to see the green-nosed defense attorney all grown up. Through Godot's trusty visor, Phoenix's age was quite visible. While he still wore the same sort of blue suit that he had favored in his prime, there were subtle things in his face that made him look more mature: laugh lines that were only visible when he smiled, deep creases that started at the ridge of his nose and hinted at the stress that he had been through over the years, and the slightest hint of sagging under his eyes from all of the sleep that he must have lost over his more intense trials. The one thing that really gave away his age, however, was that the birdlike hair which he had been so proud of wasn't as well cared for as it used to be. It was almost like he had taken a hat off and just couldn't get his hair to do exactly what he wanted anymore, leaving an obvious piece sticking out right above his forehead.

In spite of the obvious aging, Godot decided that Phoenix must not have matured all that much, since he still associated himself with the annoying moron, so not much could have really changed for the defense attorney. Of course, Godot couldn't really know for sure; during all of the years that he had been confined to the jail, not once did he ever get a visit from Wright.

Not that Godot believed visits from a man that he had had such mixed feelings towards would have ever helped to ease his pain.

Besides, Maya would visit him, and she was much more welcome company. However, her visits were becoming few and far between. Nowadays the only tie he really kept to his past life was little Pearl Fey. Every time she stopped by the jail, she would make sure to bring him a little treat. Usually the things that she brought were completely useless for a grown man, but he treasured them nonetheless. His favorite present, though, was a drawing of a heart that she had given him on the first Valentine's Day. He liked it because the heart was drawn with red crayon.

Of course even the drawing didn't give him anything to look forward to now.

Now all he had was the rare consulting gig and unintended encounters with the old attorney.

"Thanks, Nick! You're the best!"

Godot saw something black, glistening in Phoenix's outspoken friend's hand and felt a slight chill roll over him. He ignored the feeling, decided against getting the attorney's attention, and let the officers lead him out to the car.

The jail wasn't that far from the detention center, so Godot didn't have much time to contemplate things. Upon returning to his cell, a guard let him know that a little girl had called and left him a message saying that she wouldn't be able to drop in that day as she had promised before.

"She mentioned that some mystic would be in town, though, and that she would try to come in with the mystic tomorrow."

Godot scoffed and laid down on his cot. The cells in the part of the jail where he was kept were usually pretty quiet. He was the only one who had been given a life sentence, so it wasn't like people stuck around much anyways. A few years back he had come up with the theory that criminals were given so much time between there sentencing and their execution out of a twisted hope that they would off themselves before anyone else had to.

It was that kind of thinking that made living increasingly difficult for Godot. When he had first woken up from his five-year coma, he was on the verge of death and could have crossed over. If it wasn't for the fact that he blamed Mia's death on her inept protégé and felt obligated to test the man for her sake, he would have died without any regrets. But out of sheer force of will, and with a little help from modern technology, he was put back together and kept on living.

Now it felt like he couldn't stop.

Phoenix Wright had managed to arrange it so that he was given a life sentence instead of a death sentence, but Godot couldn't help but wonder if that wasn't meant to torture him. Death would have been kinder. In death, maybe he could have at last been reunited with Mia. In life, he was constantly forced to live with the hole in his heart that she had left behind.

"Tomorrow, huh?" Godot muttered to himself. He glanced at the paper taped on his cell wall and smiled. His visor could help him to see so much, but the heart drawn by a little girl would forever elude his sight. "Sorry, kid."

"Did you say something in there?" the officer asked as he took out his lunch.

Godot smiled and told him, "Nothing at all. How's the coffee today?"

The officer smirked. "It's particularly bitter today. Think the machine must be busted or something."

Bitter. The coffee had it right.

Godot had had enough. He decided that it was time to give up on the idea of redemption. It was time to join Mia. He had died once before so he figured that it wouldn't be hard to do again. He shut off his visor and let the darkness settle in.

Total darkness.

Darker than the blackest cup of coffee.

* * *

><p>Edgeworth made a mental note to maim Athena as soon as he saw her next. Though the group chat had ended, Wendy Oldbag now had his personal number. He would have to change it as soon as possible because he couldn't take the creepy love notes that she kept texting him.<p>

Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about being dragged to any party at Phoenix's office because he really had been away in Britain and just got back that day. Jet-lag seemed like as good an excuse as any to avoid all social interactions. Now that it was dark outside and he was back at his own house, he readily laid down in bed and let all his inhibitions fade away.

_SQUAWK!_

He jumped at the sound of his cell phone receiving a message and snatched it off his bedside table in a rather violent manner. He looked at the screen and saw that the message was from an unknown number. Unless Oldbag had figured out how to hide her caller ID (he had quickly given her the title of "Creepy Old Hag" in his phone just to know what he needed to delete), then someone else had sent him a message.

He opened the message and found just the words: "_THEY'RE IN DANGER."_

He wanted to put it down and out of mind, but he _did_ get the threatening message earlier as well. This one at least seemed to be less of a threat and more of a warning, but why did all of this have to be so mysterious? It was probably just someone that Athena knew who wasn't in anyone else's phone.

But this was a personal message sent only to him.

Surely there was no real danger.

But Larry was involved, so there was the slight chance that his presence alone would bring bad luck.

And Maya was in town and considering her track record. . .

Edgeworth groaned loudly and got out of bed. He threw on his best coat to make up for the fact that he was in pajamas, and got the keys to his expensive red sports car. He drove straight to the Wright Anything Agency and marched right up to the door. He decided that if someone _did_ open the door, he would leave knowing that they were fine and just messing with him—which he would surely make them pay for later. He put his hand up to knock on the door, but it opened seemingly by itself before he could even touch it. "Uhh, hello?"

Trucy poked her head around the door and he could tell right away that something had frightened her. "Uncle Edgeworth?"

And he knew that it would be a long night.

"Trucy, what's wrong? You look pale." He stepped inside and she closed the door behind him. "Better yet, why are you still awake? Everyone else seems to be pretty sound asleep."

"That's just it," she said. "We were fine one minute—just watching the scary movies that Thena brought over—and then just a minute ago it was like someone hit the off switch! They stopped mid-sentence and just sort of dropped! I thought that maybe Daddy might still be awake, so I went to have him help figure out what happened, but he was asleep too!"

Edgeworth studied the state of the room and realized that it would be strange if they had intended to fall asleep in such awkward positions. Maya seemed comfortable sprawled out on the couch, but all of the usual mess was still beneath her. Athena had somehow managed to fall asleep in the chair with her feet up where her head ought to be and her hands just dangling towards the floor; one of which was right in the face of Apollo, who had apparently fallen asleep against the messy dresser. And lastly, Larry was right in the middle of the floor with his arms at his sides and his butt sticking straight up. . . Then again, that could be totally normal for him.

"They dropped at the same time?" Edgeworth wondered.

Trucy nodded vigorously and pointed at the TV. "We had just started to watch _One Missed Call_ too. . . Would you mind, uh, turning that off?" Edgeworth smiled at her and turned the TV off. "Thanks. That was really starting to freak me out."

It was no trouble at all for him to go out of his way to help little Trucy. He wasn't, however, amused by the situation that he found himself in. "If these guys are playing a trick on you, so help me. . ." He started kicking Larry, probably a bit harder than Trucy needed to see, and yelling for him to wake up. Larry just grumbled a bit before his butt fell to the floor. "Come on, Larry! This isn't funny you worthless—"

"AAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

Larry's shrill and unusually high-pitched scream permeated the air, sending a chill down Edgeworth's spine. "That was NOT normal!" Trucy squeaked. "DEFINITELY not normal!" She rushed over to Apollo and started shaking him. "Polly! Wake up! Please wake up! Answer me!"

Apollo's body was completely limp in her hands and as his head shifted a little he just barely mumbled, "I am fine I am fine I am fine," in his sleep, like some sort of hellish mantra.

Edgeworth ventured to touch Athena's shoulder and she immediately started laughing uncontrollably. He stumbled backwards in shock and ended up tripping over Larry. "The _same_ time, you said?" Trucy stayed on the floor by Apollo and hid her face against her knees. "Okay, calm down. I'll handle things," he tried to assure her, though he knew that he was in over his head. As he started to stand up, he noticed that he had knocked something out of Larry's pocket. He picked it up and felt over its smooth surface with his thumb. "Is this a. . . erm. . . What did Phoenix used to call these things?" He held it up and Trucy looked up at it and gasped.

"Is that a black magatama?"

"Yeah! Magatama! Like the thing that let me see the psycho locks!"

"The what?"

Edgeworth cleared his throat and put the strange magatama in his pocket. "Nothing. All of this spirit stuff is just a hoax anyways. Nothing to be afraid of. Now, you said your father was sleeping elsewhere? Maybe he's not affiliated with whatever's going on out here."

Trucy wrapped her arms around Edgeworth's elbow and led him back to Phoenix's room. There, actually, seemed even more terrifying than the common room. At the time the common room was orchestrated with constant muttering, giggling, and panicked cries from Larry (none of which had been quite as bad as that first scream), Phoenix's room, on the other hand, was dead silent and the famed attorney was laying on his bed with his arms held over his chest, almost as if he belonged in a casket. He looked, by all means, dead.

A rising fear afflicted both Trucy and Edgeworth, but their reactions to it were very different. Trucy immediately started shaking him and crying out in his ear while Edgeworth put a hand on his old friend's chest. "He's still breathing," he assured her. "But this is definitely strange." Trucy whimpered, so he took her top hat off and patted her on the head. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about though, dear. You go on to bed. I'll stay in the room with you until you fall asleep, then I'll take care of everyone else."

They went back out to the common room to get to Trucy's bedroom, and, on their way, Larry unleashed another painful wail. Trucy pressed against Edgeworth's side and he rubbed her shoulder encouragingly. "I'm sure he just ate something weird. All of them. And clearly they didn't think to share it with you, so you shouldn't be worried about them. Be upset with them. . . And maybe wear headphones with music playing just loud enough to drown that moron out."

She nodded and they went into her room. All of her little magic tricks were scattered about as usual (the office had been clean once, but then Trucy's room got a little too crowded so some of her tricks seemed to migrate to the common room over the years and many of them never seemed to move), but her bed was clear enough for her to sleep in and she had a cushioned chair in the corner where he could reside and watch over her. She turned on her music player, kissed Edgeworth's cheek, and thanked him for stopping by before curling up under her blankets. "I don't know how I would have gotten through this alone," she muttered as she closed her eyes.

Edgeworth sat down in the chair and waited quietly as Trucy gradually fall asleep. Ever since his old friend had adopted her, Edgeworth had become a sort of uncle figure by accident. Phoenix had once threatened to make him her godfather as a joke, but he took on the responsibility anyways and, though he could never openly admit it, she held a special place in his heart. If staying nearby could help to make her feel safe, jet-lag would not prevent him from looking out for her. And yet, his eyes drifted shut rather quickly as he settled into the chair. He figured that as long as she knew that he was there, she could always wake him up if something was wrong, so he let his mind wander until he finally felt the gentle embrace of sleep.

"AAAAAAAAUUUUUUGHHHHH!"

Larry's cry was eardrum shattering! It made Edgeworth's eyes snap open and his heart race. He looked to Trucy and saw her shiver a little as she let out a quiet whimper, then went over to her bed and pulled her blankets up over her shoulder. She stopped shaking and smiled slightly as she went back to a peaceful state of sleep.

With that taken care of, he went back out to the common room and gave Larry a few more kicks for good measure. Once he was satisfied, he meandered back into Phoenix's room and stared at his old friend. "You're scaring your daughter, Wright. That hardly seems responsible." No response. Not even the slightest hint of movement. "What have you gotten yourself into this time?" Edgeworth recalled the black magatama and took it out of his pocket to examine. He sat down on the edge of Phoenix's bed and just stared at it. "What could this possibly mean?"

Then he felt inexplicable exhaustion. He stood up to go back to Trucy only to stumble back and pass out.

* * *

><p><strong>AN ::**

**Shikola: And here's the beginning of part two! It's so weird reading two things from me in a row, right? Well the next chapter's mine too! Be prepared for your first exclusive Edgeworth chapter! And by "exclusive," I mean no Godot bit and actually progressing the plot from the Calling story. Or I guess restarting the story.**

**As for the making of these prologues: Godot's intro was originally going to be a part of his chapter the first time around. Unfortunately, long after I wrote it, we realized how weird it was to go from Maya wandering through the world to Godot's side of the story starting back when Phoenix visited the prison. Very jarring. But it was a very good intro, if I do say so myself, and I was quite fond of it, so we found a new place where it made better sense. Since we're not getting Phoenix's intro, this made sense. The Edgeworth one was just to really show you some behind the scenes at the agency after the last prologue left off (of course Edgy wasn't involved in the first part, so poor Trucy had to face all of that on her own). If you're curious what was going on with Apollo and Athena, I'll give you the answers only after the main plot's finished. After all, we can't let Maya's (and everyone else's) death ruminate too long or you'll really, REALLY hate us. So I'll see you next chapter!**

**Melody Canta ::**

**Do you guys miss me? Shikola is doing a fantastic job carrying the second half; it's finally time to get into the whos, the whats, and the whys, all starting next chapter. I'm excited to see more Edgeworth; as many of you know, Edgeworth is my favorite, and Shikola writes a very cuddly Edgeworth. **

**Shikola keeps mentioning talking about other characters after this is done, so I'm going to announce that there's going to be a companion series to this piece detailing everything from auxiliary characters like Apollo and Athena to what happens if things went wrong (pretty much exclusively with Edgeworth because a lot of things could have gone wrong . . . and because I played Makoto's chapters and tried to die pretty much every way you could. I still have more to test). Because Shikola's going to be writing Edgeworth's main plot, I haven't decided whether I'm going to be putting up the pieces as the chapters come up or whether I'll wait and post everything in a separate story by the end. I'll let you know by the Author's Note in the next chapter what's going t****o be happening.**

**Because we're a bit behind, we're just going to give a giant blanket THANK YOU to everyone who's reviewed; hopefully we'll have the next chapters up soon!**


	9. The Mnemonic Abyss

**Chapter One :: The Mnemonic Abyss**

Edgeworth woke up feeling confused ang groggy. He had no recollection of falling asleep and no way of knowing how long he had been out, but it felt like he was waking up after a long flight to Europe. It didn't take long for him to realize that he was sleeping on the floor in a place where there was a nicely made bed right next to him. Irritated by the sheer stupidity of his situation, he pulled himself up onto the bed and immediately recognized that it wasn't his.

After looking around briefly, he couldn't help but grimace at what he saw. On a bookshelf to his left, there were four little figurines that resembled the curvier clients that Phoenix had helped over the years: Maggey Byrde in her maid's uniform, Desiree DeLite, Lana Sky, and Aura Blackquill. They were each dressed and posed like Japanese magical girls. Edgeworth felt sickened by the thought of why they had action figures made in their likeness, but it gave quite an insight to what sort of person owned the room.

The biggest clue to the identity of the room's owner was the large painting on the middle of the wall behind the shelf. It depicted the scene of a burning bridge with a fiery girl flying high above it. The painting gave Edgeworth such a feeling of disgust that he actually felt his stomach churn.

"Why? Why on _earth_ am I in Larry's room?" he asked himself angrily before going through the possibilities. "Maybe I was drugged. That must be it. I would never come here knowingly." He leaned back and put a hand behind him only to hit something. "What's this?" He picked up a note pad with the name 'Phoenix Wright' written on the cover, flipped it open, and read the first few pages.

Inside were notes that were clearly written in the old attorney's handwriting. Every note was about the black magatama. Phoenix seemed to believe that all of the strange occurrences around him were caused by it. He also went on to warn that he had seen other familiar faces in the unusual place where he had found himself and that he would continue to study the goings-on of this other world.

"Other world?" Just because Larry's room was strange didn't mean that it was otherworldly.

The mentioning of the black magatama reminded Edgeworth of what he had been doing before he apparently fell asleep. He had gone to the Anything Agency to help Trucy. There he found that everybody had suddenly fallen asleep at the same time. It was Larry who had the black magatama that Edgeworth found, so he came to the conclusion that everything was Larry's fault. "Just what's going on here?"

Suddenly, the old television at the far side of the room clicked on and showed nothing but static. For a brief second, though, a robot's face flashed on the screen as it yelled, "ROBOT UPRISING!" before disappearing and leaving nothing but static behind. Determined to figure out how Larry was pulling off the strangely elaborate prank, Edgeworth checked the VCR player—unsurprised to know that Larry was too stupid to own a DVD player in this day and age—but found that it was empty. He followed the cords attached to it only to discover that, not only was it not connected to the TV, but the TV wasn't even plugged into an outlet.

After a few more seconds of static, the TV clicked off without warning and in the silence, Edgeworth could hear his own heart pounding in his chest. "I'm getting too old for this."

The clock by the headboard of the bed started blaring loudly behind him. It felt like his heart had leapt into his throat for a moment, but he quickly calmed down and rushed over to slam the button to turn it off. He let his head drop as he sighed with relief and his hand moved to rest against the pillow of the bed. Oddly enough, he felt something hard beneath it. Casting the pillow aside, he found an old flip phone. "Does Larry own anything from our century?" Edgeworth wondered aloud. Regardless of how bizarrely old fashioned his friend was, he flipped open the phone and saw that Lana—posed like a proud superheroine—was his annoying friend's background. "That's it! I'm leaving!"

Edgeworth went to the door and found that it was locked tight. He kicked it once out of frustration before sitting down in the computer chair by the desk to mull over his situation. One glance and the computer screen renewed his fury as he saw Lana's image go scrolling across. He moved the mouse furiously to dispel the screen saver and saw the words:

_User: BigButz _

_Password:_

"Let me guess." He typed in '_Lana_', hit enter, and was in.

The window that was open on the desktop was strange. It was the group chat that Maya had set up, but it had been converted into a computer format. Scrolling down, Edgeworth saw that it was all there, word for word. There was even the threatening message towards the bottom. However, at the very end of the chat, there was a message from another anonymous sender. It was nothing more than a phone number that the old prosecutor knew by heart.

"Franziska?" Why was her number there? After a moment of consideration, he decided that calling her to bring a locksmith (or a battering ram, for that matter) to get him out of that room wasn't such a bad idea. So, he flipped open Larry's phone and dialed the number.

_997-684-771._

As soon as he heard the ringing on the other line, the room around him was swallowed in darkness and he felt an awful, dizzy sensation. He collapsed and shut his eyes for just a moment only to open them to an entirely new setting. At least it wasn't Larry's room anymore, but he couldn't figure out how he had gotten to this new place.

Unlike Larry's room, the new location was dark. And yet, even in the darkness, he could still make out the outlines of a large table in the center of the room, a door to his left, a board just right of the door, what seemed like a mini fridge in the corner by the board, and a row of tall lockers in the corner behind him. "Quaint," he mumbled. "But I'd better do something about this darkness."

The room felt a bit eerie, but he ignored that and went right for the light switch by the door. As soon as he switched the lights on, a head fell from seemingly nowhere and landed right by his foot. He gasped but recognized quickly that it wasn't, in fact, a decapitated head. It was nothing more than one of those salon heads with a wig on it for stylists to practice with—though why anyone would want hair that looked like an over-sized, blue and white torpedo was beyond him.

Now that the light was on, he could easily tell that he was at a sort of employee lounge at a salon; numerous other practice heads were lined up out of reach on a high shelf by the door. "That one must have just been too close to the edge," he assured himself. Taking another glance around, he noticed Franziska's cell phone sitting on the edge of the table. "She _had_ mentioned that her hair was getting long," he muttered, trying to justify its unusual placement. He tucked it into an empty coat pocket and realized that Larry's phone was gone without a trace.

A quiet sound from the other side of the door caught Edgeworth's attention, so he approached it slowly. "Franziska? Are you here?" He tried the doorknob and was pleased to find that this door was more cooperative than Larry's. It led out to a small area behind the salon counter and, sitting at the edge of the counter, was another scrap of paper with Phoenix's penmanship on it.

* * *

><p><em>I checked the door and saw it. It was the end of the road. A total abyss. So I have decided that this world exists within this "Mnemonic Abyss." Why did I end up here?<em>

* * *

><p>It was an unsettling and totally senseless note in Edgeworth's eyes. Why would a door lead to nothing? Surely Wright had lost his mind.<p>

Edgeworth looked to his left and found a small sort of wall acting as a divider. He stepped out from behind the counter to look around it. On the other side was the salon floor, in front of him was a small red couch no doubt meant for waiting customers, and to his right was the exit.

The whole place was strangely deserted, so he figured that it would be best if he just left. Besides, if Franziska had forgotten her phone, surely she'd be anxious to get it back. He opened the door to what should have been the outside world and stopped dead. His heart froze as he was overcome with an indescribable sense of dread. Just as the note had described, outside awaited an endless abyss. It looked to him almost like a dark purple mass of swirling, poisonous gas. He forced himself back inside and closed the door carefully. His lungs started functioning again as his heart worked over-time. His panic attack made it difficult to think straight. "Mnemonic Abyss," he muttered. "My god, Wright. What _have_ you gotten me into?"

SNIP!

Edgeworth glanced back at the salon floor, certain that he'd heard scissors, and cautiously walked over to check it out (after all, where else could he go?). He was appalled by the fact that hair was all over the floor around one of the chairs, so he took extra care to walk around it on his way to the far end of the establishment. When he looked back, he saw a pair of scissors sitting out on a tray. They were the only scissors around and they didn't look like they had moved any time recently. Just before he went back to the counter, something in a shelf close to the ground caught his eye. He crouched down to retrieve a small key with a tag attached to it. "Franzy? Why would Franziska leave a key here?" As he questioned it, he heard the scissors again.

SNIP SNIP. . . SNIP SNIP. . .

The sound was continuous and frightfully close to him. He swallowed hard and turned slowly only to jump back and fall against the shelf when he saw her. For reasons that he couldn't understand, Franziska von Karma was standing behind the salon chair that was surrounded by hair with scissors in one hand clumsily cutting at the air and her whip dangling against the floor in the other. "F-Franziska? What are you doing here? And where have you been hiding this whole time?"

He got back onto his feet, but she didn't acknowledge him. "Franziska? Are you feeling alright? You look rather pale." He reached for her shoulder and his hand went right through her. "What?"

He could do nothing but watch in amazement as his old friend faded out of existence before his very eyes. Coming to terms with that wasn't an easy task for the head prosecutor. "Okay, so, clearly I'm in a dream," he reassured himself. "A strange, Larry-vicinity-induced dream. I'll just pinch myself and wake up." He did just that and nothing happened. "Of course. Who pinches themselves in a dream? I just need to trip or fall to have my heart jump start my body awake! Sudden shocks always work." But, thinking back, he realized that he'd already been through a few heart-stopping shocks, and yet he was still there. The only other options that he could think of were to die and hope that it would successfully wake him up, or to continue on through the dream, letting it play out.

Considering what he had discovered when he had gone to check on the Anything Agency earlier, he decided that the latter would be the safer option.

He looked at the key in his hand and tried to think of what it might go to. The lockers came to mind, so he returned to the staff lounge to take a look. Three of the four lockers had keys already in them, so he tried the one without a key and it turned out to be a perfect fit. "Not even going to ask why Franziska has a locker here," he mumbled as he opened the door. Inside was a lone flashlight. Figuring that it might come in handy if he found himself in another dark room, he picked it up and tucked it away in another pocket to save for later.

Unsure of what to do next, he started back towards the counter. When he reached the open doorway, Phoenix's face flashed right in front of him, making him gasp. It lasted for just a split second, but it made it that much scarier to see a pale version of the defense attorney sitting on the couch. Phoenix's head was bowed as he stood up and vanished just as quickly as he'd come. On the couch where he had been sitting rested another small notepad that Edgeworth quickly picked up and read over.

This one explained how Phoenix had gotten to the salon. Apparently, he had wanted to call Franziska to see if people who were in the chat but not at his office had been affected. Upon calling, he was transported from an unnamed, different place to the salon where he saw Franziska very much as he remembered her; scary and violent. He expressed both curiosity and concern for her presence, wondering if his phone call hadn't brought her into the abyss.

"I'm pretty sure she'd have exacted her swift revenge on you if it was your fault that she was here," Edgeworth said smugly before adding the small pad to the pocket where the other one resided. He looked back at the counter just in time to see the pale Phoenix walking slowly into the staff lounge. A strange thudding sound accompanied him as he went out of sight.

Too freaked out to stay there any longer, he went into the lounge and discovered that the sound had been the other salon heads falling off of their shelf. Each had a strange wig on: one with a poofy, red afro; another with long, blond hair that twisted to a point on one side; another with a wig just like the blond one but with the hair undone (and with glasses decorating the head to give it character); and the last two didn't even have hair, just a strange helmet with retractable eye lenses and a headband with riceballs on it. "Was that really necessary, Wright?" Edgeworth looked for any sort of clues, but nothing else had changed in the room.

_"FOOL!"_

Edgeworth jumped when the phone in his pocket vibrated and the lights in the room went out at the same time. He reluctantly checked Franziska's cell and found that a picture message of the mini fridge had been sent to it by some anonymous person.

He tried the light switch, but the lights didn't come back on, so he nervously drew out the flashlight that he had found and turned it on. Without a second thought, he pointed the light at the salon heads only to find that they were now upright and looking towards the mini fridge. "Okay!" He was glad that no one was around to hear his voice jump an octave. From that moment on, he resolved not to look at the heads anymore and went over to the fridge.

His heart raced as he knelt down to its level. With all of the strange things that had happened, he was worried that there would be clumps of hair inside. Or some sort of decapitated limb. Or worse, an actual head.

"This is just a dream," he chanted as he reached for the door. "Just a dream." He threw it open and found. . . a sandwich. His shoulders dropped as his whole body relaxed. A quiet laugh escaped him as he realized just how ridiculous it was to be afraid of something that was only in his mind anyways. As he laughed, he noticed a small corner of paper beneath the fridge. He slid it out and examined it.

* * *

><p><em>Try these: 997-118-029 or 997-494-582<em>

* * *

><p>Apparently Phoenix had made good use of the strange cell phone trick.<p>

With nowhere else to go (and an inescapable fear of what the salon heads might do if he stuck around any longer), Edgeworth dialed the first number into Franziska's phone, tucked the scrap away with Phoenix's other notes, and pressed call.

Like with Larry's room, the dizzying sensation returned and he blacked out for only a second before finding himself collapsed on yet another floor in a dark room. This time, there was a clean bed on either side of where he ended up. "Would it be too much to arrive on someplace other than the filthy floor?" he asked. He did a quick body check after standing up to find that the only thing he was missing was Franziska's cell phone. He turned on the flashlight and took a look around his new surroundings. "A hotel room. Whose number _was_ that?"

The room wasn't anything fancy. It had two beds, a small table by covered windows, a television and cabinet at the foot of the beds, a small desk next to the cabinet, a closet by the desk, a bathroom across the tiny walkway from the closet, and a door with a peephole. Figuring that it would take some investigating, Edgeworth started his search by opening all of the drawers in the TV cabinet. In the bottom one, he found another small memo from Phoenix.

* * *

><p><em>No questioning it now. Making a call transported me to the location of the phone that I called. Is there a certain number that I should call? I should be careful. Maybe I'll stick to numbers that weren't involved in the chat. Franziska will have to be the only exception.<em>

* * *

><p>Edgeworth tucked the memo away with the others and closed the drawer only to move on and check the cabinet itself. It took every ounce of strength that he had not to cry out when he found a young boy crammed inside. The kid faded away slowly, leaving behind a message scratched into the wood. <em>'STEEL SAMURAI IS THE BEST!'<em> While Edgeworth agreed with the sentiment, he didn't intend to wait around for the kid to reappear to discuss the issue.

After closing the cabinet door, Edgeworth found a briefcase wedged between the desk and cabinet. He pulled it out and set it on the bed only to be disappointed when he realized that it had a three-digit lock code keeping it shut. He tried a few random numbers to no avail. Right when he decided to give up, he heard the shower turn on in the bathroom.

He went over to the bathroom door and, showing the courtesy that he felt befitted him, knocked to see if anyone was inside. There was no response, so he opened it cautiously. The shower curtain was drawn and showed the silhouette of an extremely weird looking person. "Hello? I don't mean to disturb you, but do you know where we are?" Still no reply. "It's still just a dream," he decided as he took hold of one end of the curtain. He drew it back quickly and found that nothing was there. The sound of water that he was so certain had been running was even gone and the tub was bone dry. The only thing in it was another notepad from Phoenix.

"Weird place to leave this."

This particular notepad spoke of a man (or was it a woman?) named Armstrong and the strange circumstances regarding that person's presence in the abyss. Phoenix knew for a fact that what he had found at the hotel couldn't be real, but it _was_ something that he could imagine that Armstrong person doing. He had decided that it wasn't the real person, but a version of him that had been created by Phoenix's own ideas and memories about them. He went on to question the possibility that the people he had seen there might not have been affected.

Edgeworth was a bit relieved to be able to think that Franziska hadn't been placed in any real danger, but seriously disturbed by the idea that their thoughts of her had made her into a horrible hairdresser in this dream world. He tucked the notepad away with the others and turned to leave the bathroom only to see the door slam shut.

"Oh, come on!" He took hold of the doorknob and found that it was stuck in place. "I am _not_ getting trapped in a bathroom!" With all his might, he forced the door open and a very large, effeminate man came out of nowhere and latched onto him.

"OOH LA LA!"

Like Wright, Franziska, and the Steel Samurai kid, the man was unusually pale. Though he didn't want to accept it, Edgeworth knew that it was beyond just being pale. There wasn't any color to the people at all! This particular man was wearing a colorless bathrobe and would giggle and repeat the words, "OOH LA LA!" while trying to force himself upon Edgeworth, pushing the head prosecutor back towards the shower.

"Unhand me this instant, you. . . you. . . foul-smelling fiend!"

The man let go and struck a dramatic pose while stating, "ZIS MAN IS TOO CRUEL!" then fading away.

It took a minute for Edgeworth to compose himself after that particular encounter. Earlier, he had been able to go right through Franziska. Why had that man been able to touch him? Could others attack him as well? "This just got much more dangerous. Thanks for nothing, Wright."

He finally stepped out of the bathroom and sighed. Uncertain of where else to look for clues, he decided to check out the exit. This time, at least, the peephole would allow him to peek out instead of walking straight into the swirling abyss. After removing his glasses, he put his eye up to the hole only to see a young woman with a sunflower hat waiting outside. At first glance, she looked perfectly innocent—like maybe she was just waiting to sell him cookies or something—but then he saw that the hat hid her eyes, but not her sinister smile. She faded away while he was still looking out at her, sending a chill through him. He pulled away from the peephole and put his glasses back on while clearing his throat.

"Think logically, Miles. The phones work as a means of transport, but I have yet to find the phone that I called to transport here. Surely it's nearby. . ." With that in mind, he chose to check out the closet that he had yet to even open. It was dishearteningly empty. He poked his head in and shone his flashlight in every little crevice, but there wasn't even a misplaced hanger left behind. Just as he decided to give up, something dropped from the far corner and landed with a loud thud.

"Owwwwww. . ."

He looked long and hard at what had fallen and recognized who it was immediately. "Kay? What are you doing here?"

"You saw nothing!" she screeched as she disappeared in a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, he found a message scratched into the wall of the closet where she had been: _'JAMMIN NINJA IS BETTER!'_

"Well, that was wildly unhelpful," he noted with a groan. He rubbed his temples and sat down on the bed by the briefcase to think. He ran the flashlight over the room again and noticed something on the other side of the bed that he was certain hadn't been there before. He anxiously picked it up and saw that it had just three numbers written on it. He quickly turned the numbered lock on the briefcase until it hit 369 and felt an overwhelming sense of relief when the latch came undone.

Inside was nothing more than the cell phone that he had boon looking for. He picked it up and realized that the phone must have belonged to the strange, pseudo-French guy. Why Edgeworth needed to deal with Armstrong, he would never know. All that he did know was that he had had more than enough of this strange hotel room. So he looked at the phone and hatched an idea. He punched in his own cell phone number and gave it a call. Maybe then he could at least get back to where he had left it.

_BEEEEP. BEEEEP. BEEEEP. BEEEEP._

Nothing. It was as if his phone was disconnected.

"Damn it."

He dug out the memo with the two numbers on it and dialed the second number. He took a deep breath before calling it, once again swallowed by the darkness. The room he found himself in seemed to be a small internet café room. He got off the floor hastily and, this time, was happy to find a new cell phone sitting at his feet. He picked it up and stood back up and came face to face with a poster for the Steel Samurai on the wall. He looked around the cramped room with his flashlight and tried the door, only to find that it was locked tight. "What the heck am I supposed to do in this tiny place?" After checking out the desk with the computer on it, he noticed a notepad that looked ready to fall from a high shelf. He fetched it and read it quickly.

This one talked about the creator of the Steel Samurai series, Sal Manella. Why Phoenix felt the need to make a call to that guy was a complete mystery to Edgeworth, but Phoenix's note talked about how he imagined that Sal was there because he could see him hiding in a place like that, hurrying to meet a deadline. Nothing else seemed all that odd to him, though. He couldn't even get the computer to turn on.

Edgeworth took a step back to think about things. The notepad didn't seem to be helpful in the slightest. There wasn't any sort of clue hidden within it that hadn't already been revealed.

Then he heard the keyboard start clicking away. He looked over at the desk and saw a man sitting at the computer chair. He could only see the back of the man's head, but something told him that it was the famous Sal Manella himself, typing away at his next script. Edgeworth tensed up as soon as he realized that the man was as colorless as the other people he'd run into in the Abyss.

When the man stood up from the computer desk, Edgeworth backed all the way into the wall. The man faded and Edgeworth exhaled. Then the man reappeared right in front of him and took hold of his neck.

"1'VE G0T T0 M33T TH3 D34DL1N3! JU5T G1V3 M3 4 F3W M0R3 D4Y5!"

Fear consumed Edgeworth as he struggled to break free from the man's grasp. He got a close look at the man's face and saw that his eyes were nothing more than large, black holes. They saw nothing and tore through his very soul. The man's grip continued to tighten around Edgeworth's neck, cutting off all air flowing through his lungs. He had been able to talk his way out of the last attack, but there was no way to even speak now. He had never been one for brute strength. Franziska was the one who waved around the whip while he simply wielded his words. He thought of how hard-headed Franziska was and a strange idea came to him. He rammed his head up against the man's face and made contact. The hands released his neck and the man disappeared while muttering to himself.

Edgeworth looked around, afraid that the writer might show up again, but nothing happened. He collapsed in the computer chair and put a tentative hand to his neck. "That felt too real," he whispered. "But. . . It can't be, right?" He looked up at the computer screen and saw that his attacker had left it open on the same page that was up at Larry's place. Word for word, it was the chat that Maya had set up.

"This can't be!"

Edgeworth didn't want to spend another moment in that claustrophobic excuse for a computer room. So he pulled out the cell phone and called Larry's number. While he still wanted to have nothing to do with the pathetic lout, Larry's room had proven to be the safest place so far. He figured it would be best to settle his thoughts there. So he made the call and was left on the floor by the bed again.

Larry's room was still fully lit and very quiet. The silence was unnerving, but as long as things just turned on and off, he figured that he would be safe. Still, the more time he spent looking at the posters and figures, the more irritated he felt. "This room is sickening," he mumbled as he went over to the figurines and examined each one closely. They were strangely well detailed. As he looked at the Lana figure, he heard the printer start running. He looked at it over his shoulder to find that it was busy printing something colorful out.

After setting down the figurine, he checked the image being printed only to grimace. It was a poster of Lana Skye.

A shattering sound came from behind him and he spun around to see that the Lana figurine had somehow managed to fall off the shelf and break. He brushed off the chill he felt coming on, wadded up the poster, and cast it aside. Then, he saw the Lana screen saver and grit his teeth angrily. It was weird enough that Larry had such an obsession with one of Edgeworth's old coworkers, but this just seemed excessive. He moved the mouse again to reveal the chat and noticed something a little different. The unidentifiable person had left another phone number at the bottom of the chat.

Anxious to get out of Larry's room again, he picked the phone up off of the desk and dialed the strange number.

Edgeworth was a little worried about how much he had gotten used to the strange sensation of transporting, but not as much as he was frightened by the awful stench that greeted him in his new location. Winding up on the floor everywhere had seemed bad enough, but the floor of a public restroom that looked like it had been abandoned for years was much, much worse. "No, no, please no." He started to stand and came face to face with a pair of glowing eyes concealed within a ghostly cardboard box. He cried out in fear and fell backwards only to notice that arms were poking out from the sides of the box and that they had snatched all of the notes from his pockets!

"Wait! Stop!" But the box monster pulled in its arms, taking the notes, and ran right through the exit like the door wasn't even there.

"Well that's just great." Edgeworth finally stood up and did a quick flashlight sweep over his surroundings. As he had feared, the bathroom was a total crime against hygiene and the cell phone that he needed was waiting to be picked up from the ledge over the moldy sinks. "Just a dream," he whimpered as he took it and placed it in the pocket on the inside of his coat for safekeeping.

Eager to get away from the nasty place, Edgeworth made a break for the door. As soon as his hand touched, however, it he heard a melodramatic sigh.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH. . ."

The sound of it made Edgeworth want to give up all hope of escaping from the nightmare-like world. The sigh came from the second bathroom stall from the end and he felt the need to confirm just what he had heard. The door wasn't latched shut, so he pushed it open gently and found a man with hair that faintly resembled a rocket ship. The man had a rope around his neck and was hanging from the ceiling, but his eyes shifted and found Edgeworth, like he was very much alive. "GUESS IT'S TIME TO BLAST OFF," the man decided. Then he moved like he was swimming straight up and floated through the ceiling until he was completely out of sight.

Edgeworth shook his head and mumbled, "I'm just going to blame Larry for that one."

He left the bathroom with that in mind and found himself in a dark hallway. He used the flashlight in a feeble attempt to figure out where he was and was forced to move down the hall in search of anything that might give him an indication of where to go next. He came upon a wall of small lockers and low sinks and knew that he had to be in an abandoned school. But he couldn't figure out who Phoenix would have called to get to such a place.

"YIP YIP YIP!"

Edgeworth looked all around with his flashlight but couldn't see anything that would produce such a strange sound. "I could have sworn. . ." He looked down at his feet to think and saw it. There was a very chipper little Pomeranian, dancing around his shoes. "A dog?" He crouched and was pleased to find that he could actually run his hand through the little guy's fur. "What are you doing here?"

"Saying HELLO!" Edgeworth froze when it spoke, but that didn't slow it down at all. "I'm so glad to meet you! You're lively, like the other one!"

Though he had trouble coming to terms with the fact that the dog was talking to him, he was curious about who the little critter was talking about. "What do you mean, 'other one'?"

The hyperactive dog chased its tail a few times. "The other lively person! She smelled like hamburgers!"

The strange detail proved entirely unhelpful for Edgeworth, but he figured that, since the dog understood human speech, he could at least use it to his advantage. "Could you help me track something that I lost?"

"Sure! I'm a great tracker! What am I tracking?"

Edgeworth showed the little guy the pocket of his jacket where he had been keeping all of his notes and told it, "Someone stole the papers I'd been keeping in here. They're very important to me because. . . well. . . my friend left them to help me out."

The little dog anxiously sniffed at his pocket and barked happily before saying, "I've got it! Follow me!" And it dashed off faster than Edgeworth had anticipated. He almost lost the little guy in the darkness, but caught up when it came to an abrupt stop at a classroom. "In here, Mr. Ruffles!" it barked before going right through the door. Edgeworth paused for a moment and sighed. He realized that, like everyone else here, the dog seemed to be a ghost. Still, the little guy was the only ray of sunshine in this awful place, so he decided to trust it.

Edgeworth opened the door and stepped into the classroom to look right at the dog and say, "Two things. First, my name is Miles Edgeworth, not Mr. Ruffles."

"Okay, Ruffles! And my name's Missile!"

Edgeworth cleared his throat and restated, "My name is _not_ Ruffles."

"Right! You're Miles!"

Edgeworth wasn't used to being called by his first name, but he wasn't sure how to discuss formalities with a dog, so he let it go and went on to bring up what was really bothering him. "Good enough. Now Missile, are you, by any chance, a ghost?"

The little dog whimpered as he tilted his head and asked, "What's a ghost?"

Edgeworth realized how absurd he sounded and chose to drop the subject entirely; after all, he knew that there was no such thing as ghosts. "Never mind that. Did you find my notes in here?"

"Yeah! Right over there!" Missile pointed his nose towards the corner along the same side of the wall as the entrance where a solitary locker stood. Edgeworth maneuvered around the grubby desks and stood in front of the locker. He took a deep breath and held it as he forced the door open. The screech of the hinges made him uneasy, but the words written on the inside were what made him sweat.

_'I'M SCARED.'_

He knew that there was no sense in panicking over something that couldn't actually hurt him, so he put it out of his mind and looked at the bottom of the locker where a single scrap of paper awaited him. It was still in Phoenix's handwriting, but it wasn't one of the notes that he had seen before.

* * *

><p><em>I tried calling a few different numbers. Some let me transport, others were disconnected. But there were a select few with voices on the other line. Most of those voices sounded normal, so I didn't talk to them to avoid interfering with their lives. Of course, this meant that I wasn't able to transport to where they were. Sometimes, however, the voices sounded different and seemed to have more sinister intentions. The scariest thing was always when the phones that I found started ringing on their own.<em>

* * *

><p>"Is that your notes, Ruffles?" Missile piped, bringing Edgeworth's mind back to his current situation.<p>

"It's Miles. I mean. . . never mind. This isn't what I lost, but it's part of what I was looking for so, good boy."

Missile tilted his furry little head again and asked, "Are you _not_ looking for what you lost?"

"Of course I am. Just. . . can you sniff out anymore?" He couldn't believe how much trouble he was having communicating with a dog.

Missile sniffed around and sneezed once before telling him, "I smell more, but it's not in here. Follow me!"

He dashed right through the wall and Edgeworth ran back to the door and hurried after him. He thought that he had lost his peculiar guide once again, but when he passed by the stairwell, Missile barked once, alerting him to the fact that it was time to go down a floor. The door by the stairwell had a big 4 on it, so he figured that he was a long way away from any sort of exit. He followed Missile down a floor and, just before the little guy went around the bend to go down another flight of stairs, he stopped and sniffed the air.

"Another person! We should say hello!" Missile decided.

Hopeful that the other person was "lively," Edgeworth agreed to follow the dog around the first corner of the hall and saw a bathroom door fling open. Out stumbled Larry, and Missile started to run for him, but Edgeworth picked up his wiggling companion and carefully held his snout shut. "Hold on. Something's not right."

Two students and the strange box creature drifted slowly out of the bathroom where Larry had been. Missile whimpered when he saw them and disappeared in Edgeworth's arms, leaving no trace behind. The taller student pointed towards where Larry had run off and his cohorts went after him.

Edgeworth noticed that Larry had more color to him than the other people he had encountered thus far, but he didn't feel the need to help the useless clout. With that reasoning in mind, Edgeworth decided to head back to the stairs only to recognize that the tall student had turned and—though his eyes were hidden by the glasses on his face—he looked right at Edgeworth. After a long moment, the student smiled smugly and went after the others.

Grateful to find that Larry was at least useful as a distraction, Edgeworth went back to the stairs and down to the second floor. Missile wasn't waiting for him down there, so he figured that it would be best to check around on his own while the more malicious beings were busy harassing Larry. He chose to hurry, just in case the students and box monster got tired of his friend. As soon as he started running, a swift shadow passed in front of him. It faintly resembled a long overcoat as it flowed by, accompanied by a familiar, "SORRY, PAL!"

"Detective?" Edgeworth searched the area and ran further down the hall, hoping beyond hope to find a friendly and useful face in this terrible nightmare. During his search, he came upon a dead end with no sign of Gumshoe. "Damn it all."

As he started to turn, a small drawing of an eye on the wall caught his attention. "What's this about?" He touched his hand to it and felt a sudden sense of unshakable terror. He heard heavy breathing behind him and broke out in a cold sweat. It felt like his lungs had been dipped in ice and every breath he drew was strained and cold. He turned slowly and saw her: an old woman in a red dress that certainly wasn't made for someone her age. She was peering out from behind a locker and staring longingly at him. She went further behind the locker until she disappeared entirely and Edgeworth felt almost instant relief. Then the phone vibrated. He checked it and saw that he had received a message from someone with the title of, 'RED'. It was a picture message of a drawing of an eye. Scribbled out beneath the childish doodle were the words: _'I found you, Edgeypoo!'_

Edgeworth quickly deleted the message and powerwalked down the hall all the way back to the stairs. Before he could escape to the first floor, however, he heard a rattling sound down the hall in the opposite direction from where he had encountered the red woman. "Detective?" It came again, so, against his better judgment, he went down the hall in search of its source. It couldn't be anything worse than what had just happened to him. "Missile?" The sound was coming from the art room—the door was shaking on its track—so he slid it open and once again found numerous heads awaiting him inside. At least this time they were obviously ceramic. . . or was it clay? . . . or maybe marble. . .

The important thing was that they didn't look realistic enough to really make him nervous. The most prominent piece of art in the room was a tall statue of a woman without arms. "Was there something in here?"

All of a sudden he heard footsteps out in the hallway. Thinking of the red woman, he ran around the statue and hid behind the partition where, unfortunately, there were more heads waiting. "What is it with these heads?" he questioned before covering his own mouth to hide his breathing. The footsteps got closer and closer until someone else came into the room. He peered around the statue and was amazed to see Phoenix's old partner, Maya Fey, with a flashlight in hand. Her kimono was still purple and her feet still touched the ground.

"I thought that you were a ghost," he admitted as he stepped out into the open. "Glad to see that you're alive. . ."

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**Shikola Krasno:**

**The more Melody and I wrote, the more problems we found with the logic of Calling. Seriously, there is a strange abundance of things that don't quite follow the rules that the game goes so far to establish. Of course that made it even harder to keep our own story straight because, not only did we have to come up with explanations for why the attorney gang was in those situations, we also had to make up explanations for how the story even worked. Of all the logical fallacies, my personal favorite was the most random and insignificant: Makoto (Edgy's character) gives Rin (Maya) a business card with his number on it. The number on the card, though, was the same number that Makoto had to call to reach the school. So why would he have a business card with that number on it? The next Edgy chapter will reveal the identity of the owner of that phone, but I can't tell you yet.**

**Anyways, sorry that this took a while to get out. Lots of stuff has been going on for both Melody and I that has kind of made this story a bit of a side note. The only thing that's saving me right now is that most of my stuff was already written, just in desperate need of editing (which is such a time-consuming pain). Hopefully we'll get back into the swing of things, but by the off chance that we don't, I swear that we'll try to work harder as soon as the school term is over.**

**And a little shout-out to one of our readers (Eyeglasses Full of Stars): Kudos for reviewing our last bit so quickly after we published it! Seriously, you deserve a medal! But yeah, as for Oldbag and Edgy. . . Well you got your first "Red Woman" encounter in this chapter. Let me just say that there will be plenty more. By the time that I'm through with him, "poor Edgeworth" won't even begin to cover it.**

**Melody Canta ::**

**Finally! I apologize for the wait; this has mostly been my fault. I'm graduating from college this year, and with a lot of family things going on, beta reading sort of took the backseat. Anyways, I'll be back with the next chapter! So, see you guys again sooner, hopefully!**

**R & R**


	10. The Turnabout Awakening

**A/N :: This is a rewritten chapter, meaning that most of the chapter has remained the same. It is HIGHLY recommended that you read this chapter, as small things have changed that may be integral to understanding the final plot! That being said, a lot of the chapter will feel the same.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two :: The Turnabout Awakening<strong>

Indistinct images flashed across her mind, quick and defined by nothing more than color and broad shapes. A snowy mountain. A dagger. A paper napkin.

And blood.

Maya shot up, panting heavily. Her hand clutched at the front of her robe, eventually relaxing over her heart as she realized it hadn't been real. "That dream . . ." Even though it had been seven years since Misty Fey's death, and three since she could remember last having that dream, it seemed familiar somehow. It was almost like she had been in this exact same situation before. Like deja vu.

Speaking of deja vu . . . This wasn't the Wright Anything Agency. Where was she?

This had to be some sort of school, she determined, as she seemed to be in a classroom. A music room, if the piano and drum set were any indication. She peered around in the darkness, spotting the light switch on the opposite side of the piano. She flicked it, but the lights were dead.

Unfamiliar place, no power . . . talk about creepy.

Priority number one would have to be to find a light.

Even though she'd never been here, she could tell there was nothing in the room that would help her find the light. She opened the door, pausing when music began to play down the hallway. The tune was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. What she did know was that if music was playing, someone else had to have been playing it, which meant someone else had to be there. Maya moved towards the noise, seeing a blinking green light on the floor. "A cell phone?" she asked, picking it up and examining it. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it other than the fact that it was still ringing. She flipped it open and put it up to her ear. "Hello?"

"HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Maya held the phone away from her at the loud volume.

"YOU HAVE MY PHONE, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! I'm coming to get it. O-k-a-y?" Whoever it was seemed to have multiple personality disorder, because they had gone from screaming to cutesy in no time at all. Before she could answer, the other person hung up.

"Uh, sounds good," she said weakly, flipping the phone closed and looking around. It seemed she wasn't alone here, which was a bit of a relief. This school was creepy. And dark. Besides, if they got separated, it would be easy enough to find this other person. All they would have to do was shout and it was doubtful there would be anywhere she couldn't hear it from.

Of course, there was a problem in the logic the other person had presented. If they were planning on getting their phone, they needed to know where Maya was. She looked at the call log, but it was mysteriously empty. Luckily, the other person solved the problem for her. The phone rang again.

"I'm on the first floor. In the hallway. I'M COMING TO GET MY PHONE, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

"Should, I come to y—" The clicking noise of the other person hanging up again made her cut off. Maybe whoever it was knew where they had left their phone originally or something.

Besides, it wasn't like she really knew where she was. Maybe all of the classrooms in this school had pianos and drum sets. She'd never know if she didn't look.

She'd only taken a few steps when the phone rang again.

"I'm at the staircase LANDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! On. The. Second. Floor." Once again the person hung up before Maya could say anything.

"Honestly, what's the point of calling when you don't wait for the other person to say anything back?" she asked herself rhetorically before sighing and taking a few more steps.

_Yip yip yip yip yip. Yip yip._

Was there a dog somewhere? Maya entered the classroom on her left, which looked as normal as any other classroom she'd ever seen: desks, blackboards, little cubbies for belongings . . .

And a little dog.

"Yip yip yip! HELLO!"

Apparently the dog talked.

It was a cute little thing, a Pomeranian if she wasn't mistaken, with caramel colored fur and big black eyes. It ran around her in circles, finally standing on its hind legs to paw at her knees. "Well, aren't you a cutie? What's your name?" she asked, kneeling down to scratch the pup on its head.

The dog whimpered. "You don't remember me?"

Forget the talking dog. They had met before?

"No, I don't."

The dog snuffled, returning to all fours in disappointment. "Okay." Maya felt bad, but before she could salvage the situation, the dog had perked right back up. "HELLO! My name is Missile!"

"Hello, Missile." She put out her hand, giggling when he raised his paw to shake. "What are you doing in a place like this?"

"Saying hello!" Obviously. What had she been thinking?

Maya nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but the cell phone rang again before she could. "Just one second, okay?"

Missile started pawing at her leg and whining as soon as the other person started talking (presumably to say hello to them as well? Strange way to say hello), but Maya could still hear the "I'm on the staircase on the third floor! I'm coming, so don't m-o-v-e, okay?"

This time, she didn't wait to be hung up on. "Okay, Missile. Want to meet a new friend?"

He whimpered. "I want to say hello, but . . . " The little dog circled, growling in frustration before running up to her and beginning to yip. "LET'S SAY HELLO!" Maya sighed. Forget the mystery person on the other end of the line; there was no way she could lose Missile with the incessant barking. Besides, he'd come find her eventually just to say hello.

"Do you know where the staircase is?"

"Ummmmmmm . . . no!"

They could at least try to find it, if nothing else. "Okay, let's go."

Together, the spirit medium and the dog walked down the hallway. Maya noted three more classrooms and a bathroom before they saw the glowing green stair sign as the path came to a T. The stairs were just around the corner, and Maya made an attempt to go towards them, but Missile bounded down the hall and started barking at a nearby door. "Missile? Did you find something?"

The door he was barking at was beat up. White paint had been gouged by something sharp to reveal the underlying wood in places. There was a crack that widened into a hole at the bottom, but it wasn't big enough for either Maya or Missile to fit through. The frosted glass window was broken at a corner, force causing long tendrils of damage to radiate from the hole. Some sort of weird blue light emanated from inside.

"HELLO! HELLO!" Missile shouted between yips.

Someone had to be in there. Maya pulled on the handle, but the door was locked.

Her sixth sense prickled, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. Something was wrong, she could tell immediately. She put her face to the glass, lining her eye up with the hole to see through.

It was just as dark inside the room as the rest of the school, but somehow, she could still see two people clearly. They seemed to glow white with a supernatural force, defining their school uniforms. The man, tall and broad-shouldered, held something long and thin in his left arm. The girl—or at least she assumed it was a girl—had a cardboard box over half of her body, and a skirt on the other half. They were talking about something, but it was too quiet for her to hear. And then, before her eyes, they started to fade. She blinked, and it was like they had never been there at all.

She moved, changing her view of the room when—

Two white, beady eyes popped in front of her view, the white cardboard box blocking the rest of the hole. She gasped, stepping back as Missile continued to bark.

And that was when she realized there was heavy breathing behind her. The barking suddenly stopped, and she glanced over to where the small dog had been, but he was nowhere to be found. "Missile?" she asked, turning slowly.

A small but thin man was behind her, looking just as opaque as the students in the classroom. He wore a school uniform, but also a headband and apron that were stained with some sort of splattered liquid. "MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! That's my p-h-o-n-e." He waggled his finger as he spelled out "phone," and then he tackled her.

She fell hard, her back slamming against the tile floor. The man had taken hold of her arms, using them to drag her back up.

With a move she'd learned from Athena, she punched him square in the nose. The minute he'd careened back and disappeared, she ran.

She'd made it almost back to the music room when he appeared in front of her again. He rushed at her, knocking her down. He was saying something, but the sound of blood pulsing in her ears made it impossible for her to say what. She knocked him off of her within seconds, and he vanished again.

She couldn't keep running around in circles. She was heavily panting, despite only having run a short distance, and her knees were shaking. Each time the man grabbed at her, her body seemed to rebel. She couldn't take too much more.

The stairs. She'd been looking for the stairs to begin with.

She was only feet away from the staircase when the man attacked again, but she was ready for him this time. As soon as he ran at her, she stepped to the side, sprinting the final distance. She rounded the second set of stairs, hearing his panting behind her, and . . .

He vanished from the stairway.

She breathed a sigh of relief, sinking down on the bottom step.

Ghosts. That was what she had seen and had attacked her. There were ghosts in this school.

She tried to muster up surprise, but for some reason, it felt like she had known that. It was almost like she had been here before.

Was this the land of the dead? Did she recognize it from her spirit channeling? Was there some inner part of her that knew this place like the back of her hand?

Maybe this was all a nightmare. She pinched herself. No luck. She was stuck here until she could find the exit.

There was a "3" painted on the stairwell door, so she supposed she must be on the third floor. That meant that the music room had to have been on the fourth floor. Maybe, if she could get to the first floor, the entrance would be open and she would find herself back on the streets of Los Angeles.

But what if this was one of those weird buildings where the entrance wasn't on the first floor, but on the second or third? Or, magatama forbid, the fourth?

She'd summon Mia. Mia would know what to do.

Maya closed her eyes, reaching out to the world of the dead for her sister. Nothing happened. She couldn't even persuade her soul to leave her body. For now, her channeling powers were on the fritz, something that hadn't happened since she was a teenager.

No help for her. Even Missile was gone. She was alone.

But she couldn't dwell on that! Pearly was coming tomorrow, so she had to get home for her little cousin's sake. She stood, walking into the third floor hallway. If she was going to get out of here, the first thing that she needed to do was get familiar with the territory. Besides, maybe if she looked hard enough, she might find something to scare off those ghosts.

Turning left and beginning down the corridor, it wasn't long before she came across another door glowing with a blue light. Despite the logical part of her brain reminding her about what had happened last time she'd come across a lit door, she was a spirit medium, and her sixth sense was strong. There was something absent in the air, something different, something that wasn't . . . threatening.

She pulled at the door, unsurprised to find that it was locked too. Of course this couldn't be easy. There was a sign next to the door, but even when she peered at it from millimeters away, there still wasn't enough light for her to read it.

Priority one: Unchanged. Find a light, and soon.

Priority two: Figure out what the sign said.

A familiar shout made her turn her head, and she could see a door open in the light from the stair sign. It slammed shut, the noise reverberating all the way down the hall.

The ghosts hadn't seemed to bother with doors, so she figured it had to be pretty safe. She walked to it. She could hear the muttering even from outside, and it was obvious who was inside now that she could hear his speech. "Gotta be brave. Gotta get back out there. What if my secret admirer is out there? WHAT IF I GOTTA GO SAVE HER?"

She entered the bathroom and knocked on the only closed stall. "Larry?"

He squealed. It was a very girly, high-pitched squeal, one that she'd never actually heard him make. "Why does this keep happening to meeeeeee? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?"

"Larry, open the door!" She rattled the handle, but it only served to make him scream again as he repeated, "Whyyyyyy? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?"

Maya sized up the door. It wasn't one of those cheap plastic ones, but an honest-to-goodness _door_, complete with a real handle. Talk about a fancy bathroom. Unfortunately, that meant that she didn't have a chance in hell at breaking it down and getting inside. She rattled the door again. "It's Maya! Open the door!"

"Think happy thoughts! Think happy thoughts! Think happy—AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed again as Maya threw herself against the door.

"LARRY!" she shouted.

"Go away!" he screamed back.

"Larry, it's Maya!"

She could hear his sobs of terror clearly as he cowered backwards. "Maya? What's . . . what's going on?"

"I don't know. But we'll be fine! We'll find Nick and he'll know what's happening! And then we'll all go home."

"Home?" Of course, this was the moment that her cell phone rang again.

Larry wailed. By the time she'd managed to silence the ringing, he'd worked himself into such a frenzy that it was impossible to get him to talk intelligibly again.

"Stay here!" she said finally, slightly annoyed. "I'll be back!" She was the one who was the expert with ghosts and spiritual things. It was going to be her job to figure out what was going on here!

She exited the bathroom, wondering when she was going to find some sort of light source. The dark hallways were beginning to all look the same.

Suddenly, something gave off a loud crack. "Who's there?" she asked, backing up against a wall. _Please not the apron guy, please not the apron guy._

Something clicked, and a small cylinder of light dispelled the darkness near her feet.

A flashlight. Thank Ami, it was a flashlight.

She retrieved it from where it had fallen, waving it around experimentally. On her left was the set of benches under some _very _dark windows. She moved towards them, pressing her face against the pane. Nothing. She couldn't see anything; not a playground, not even a road. It was like the outside didn't exist at all, and this building merely existed in some sort of nightmare world.

On her right were classrooms. The signs said 2-3 and 2-4 respectively, but both were locked.

But hey, now she could check priority one off the list; she'd found a light.

New priority one: read that sign.

She walked back down the hallway, ignoring Larry's muttering as she walked past the bathroom. The placard next to the glowing door said "Computer Lab". No wonder there was something lit up inside; a computer was probably on. Maya redirected the flashlight beam towards the paper sign on the window. "If this door is locked, see the janitor," she read aloud.

It was doubtful that she'd find the janitor (or find him alive, at least), but if she was looking for a key, it would likely be in his office. There was only one problem with that: where was the janitor's office?

She walked back down the hall for consistency's sake, making sure she hadn't missed anything important in the dark. She could imagine Mia's advice even if her sister wasn't there: _be thorough and don't miss anything_. Unfortunately, other than the bathroom, she only found the locked classrooms 2-1 and 2-2.

As she rounded the corner, the cell phone rang. She picked it up without thinking.

There was a girlish giggle on the other end, followed by, "I've found our friend again. It's time to play."

The line went dead. She glanced back towards the bathroom and froze. The three ghosts were walking away from her, oddly enough, but she didn't realize what they were doing until the tall one opened the door to the bathroom.

Larry was the friend.

She could hear his strangled scream from halfway down the hall.

She almost sprinted after them. The voice had said "again". What did it mean? Still, she wasn't exactly an amateur at dealing with ghosts, and she knew that without something to banish them, she wasn't going to be any help. For Larry's sake, she needed to find a way out, fast.

Time to pick up the pace.

She didn't find anything else on the third floor, so she took the first staircase she saw down to the second floor. This floor also seemed mostly empty. In Classroom 1-6, she found a magazine lying open on a desk. Hunching over the desk, clutching the flashlight, she began to read.

* * *

><p><span><em>Death of Three Students Rocks Themis Law School<em>

_The death of three students has jeopardized the future of the esteemed Themis Law Academy. The school, known for producing legal legends such as Klavier Gavin, has been ruled as safe, but that doesn't keep scared parents from removing their children from the program._

_The three students, all in their final year at the Academy, were found unconscious in the computer lab by another student. They were taken to the hospital, but none recovered consciousness and all three eventually died. The hospital reported that the cause of death was unknown, and the toxicology report showed no drugs or poisons on the victims, The school has been reopened, though enrollment has dropped by 25%. Current director of the Prosecutor program, Nathaniel Price, has commented that although what happened was a tragedy, the education of students must continue._

_The names of the victims have not yet been released to the public._

* * *

><p>It couldn't be a coincidence. Three students, three ghosts; these had to be the same.<p>

Unfortunately, while this was interesting, it was hardly useful. She could hardly sit there and wave the newspaper at them, and the article hadn't been specific enough to tell her what had happened. She needed to move on and find something that she could help Larry with.

She turned to exit the classroom, only to realize that the door she had originally come through was now locked. She rattled it a few times, but it held. No matter. There was an extra set of doors in the back that seemed to lead out to the same hall.

No luck. They were locked too.

She needed to find something to open the door with. She scanned the room further, her light pausing over a brightly colored desk. She finally realized that the desk wasn't dyed that way or something equally crazy, but it was covered in multicolored writing.

_'What a freak.'_

_'That newspaper of hers is so weird.'_

_'She stalks people and calls it her calling. I bet that newspaper is just a cover for something else.'_

Maya crept forward, running a finger over the hurtful words in differing colors of ink. She wasn't sure what it was all about, but the idea that anyone would write things like that . . .

"That's not nice."

Her sixth sense prickled as soon as the unfamiliar voice said the words, but almost immediately, pain exploded at her calves as she fell to the desk. Her fingers scrabbled against the surface as she tried to regain her balance. Something was grasping her leg, and her breathing immediately ramped up, panic coloring her surroundings red. She tried to shake her leg free, successfully doing so after a few moments. She turned to run, realizing that her attacker was the girl with the box on her head. The box had fallen to the ground, revealing the girl beneath it, but Maya didn't get a good enough look at her to say much. Instead, she sprinted towards the nearest door, relieved when it opened.

She ran down the hall, the box girl chasing her. When she reached the stairs, she took them two at a time, and stopped looking back. Blood was pounding in her ears, making her heartbeat echo in her own head as she ran to the other staircase (somehow knowing that she needed to change staircases in order to get farther down; she didn't stop to contemplate that).

Something dark swept past her vision, and she screamed, her own voice almost drowning out the "Sorry, pal" that the dark thing said as it disappeared.

When would these stop?!

She didn't stop running until she'd reached the first floor, and she might have continued on if a black cat hadn't been waiting for her at the bottom. It meowed at her and took off to the left.

Black cats were superstitious, but since Missile had been friendly, she figured she didn't have anything to lose. Besides, it looked vaguely familiar, with its red bandanna.

It led her past a few rooms, but darted into a locker bay. Maya moved past the lockers and found the cat at a closed door.

"Open it," it said, and she jumped.

"You can talk too?!"

He tilted his head. "Is there another talking cat around here?"

"Not a cat, a dog. His name was Missile."

The cat purred. "Oh yeah. Good friend. Make sure you keep him company when you can. He might not be the brightest, but his heart's in the right place Anyways, open the door."

She did. Only to be met with a swirling purple vortex. At first glance, it seemed far away and nothing was between it and her. Absolute nothingness. She pointed the flashlight in all directions, but it never hit any walls. There was literally nothing in the room. "W—What is—?"

"The abyss." The cat sat up, licking its front paw with a satisfied purr. "I knew I got the right room this time."

Maya gulped and stared into the abyss. "Am I supposed to go in there?"

"Why would you do that?" the cat asked, sounding alarmed. It brushed past her feet to sit between her and the door. "Does it even look _remotely_ safe?"

"Not exactly."

"I thought so," the cat said. "Honestly, how do you not all end up in an early grave?"

"All?" The way the cat was talking, it sounded like there were others, but . . .

"All of you. Good luck, Maya." With a swish of the tail, the door slammed shut. The cat skittered off across the tile and disappeared around the corner.

"Wait!" How had it known her name? And who else was here? Was the cat talking about Larry? She ran after it, but it was gone.

Talk about strange. Giant swirling abysses concealed behind doors, ghosts in a school, and animals that could talk.

There wasn't much more anyone could throw at her that would surprise her.

The library was the last door at the end of this hall before she reached a quite conspicuous dead end, so she looked into it first. It looked normal enough; there were rows of bookshelves and at the end of the room was a librarian's desk. She was about to exit when the newspaper caught her eye.

* * *

><p><span><em>Mysterious Deaths Continue<em>

_The death of former cartoon genius Sal Manella has added one more to the list of mysterious deaths that have happened in the last month. Manella, 46, was found unconscious at an Internet Café. According to sources near the victim, Manella was doing research for a recent animation project, _The Golden Samurai_, that was slated to the the next big television show for 2029._

_The mysterious deaths have included a local hairdresser, a business man, and three students from Themis Law Academy. All of the victims were found unconscious and none regained consciousness before their deaths. Police have been unable to identify a link between the six victims, and no toxins or poisons have been identified._

_If you have any information, please contact your local police station._

* * *

><p>Maya covered her mouth in shock. There was no way she could have missed this. No way at all. How could Sal Manella—<em>the<em> Sal Manella—have died? And how could she have missed it?

She took a short moment to mourn the death of a legend before pressing on. She had to find the Janitor's Office. Or a way out.

She exited the library, running her hands over every inch of wall she could reach at the dead end, but there seemed to be no hidden switch or a door that lead anywhere, so she backtracked towards the stairs, still reading every sign. She passed the staircase, and the first door on the right said "Janitor's Office."

"Now we're talking," Maya said to herself, stepping inside. The Janitor's Office was dark and sparsely decorated, though it did have a fridge that she contemplated taking a soda from. There was a safe next to the door with a keypad barring the entrance.

_0175_.

The four numbers came to mind, unbidden, and she froze, trying to figure out why it seemed familiar.

Maybe it meant something to her. She pushed the thought from her mind, entering it into the keypad.

The console blinked and beeped loudly, the red indicator turning green as the door swung open.

But . . . how had she known? She'd never attended public school, so the idea that she'd ever been here was ridiculous. There was no reason she should know the combination to a safe she'd never seen before!

Still, she could contemplate that later. For now, she needed to get out of this place.

There was a key labeled "Computer Lab" on a keyring, so she took that one and set back on a path towards the staircase. She took the stairs up to the third floor, the computer lab right in front of the stairs. The blue light was still there, which she took to be a good sign. She unlocked the door with the key she'd just obtained and entered.

Most of the computers were off, but there was one in the middle of the room that was brightly lit. Maya walked over to it, sitting in the chair so that she could scroll up and down the text page that was up.

* * *

><p><em>Conversation: Group Chat (7)<em>

_Maya Fey: OMG HI GUYS_

_Phoenix Wright: Think you've done it this time?_

_Miles Edgeworth: Who is this?_

_Maya Fey: Really, Edgeworth? You don't remember me? You're never getting a Christmas present from me ever again. D: Especially not a Limited Edition Steel Samurai figurine._

_..._

* * *

><p>She jerked back from the screen, eyes wide. How could this be on the computer? <em>How<em>? It had been a text message between friends, and to her knowledge, had never been uploaded onto a computer. Could that even happen?

She read through their conversation again, her eyes pausing over the anonymous messages. _You will all suffer. I will take my revenge._ Was it possible—

No, of course not. No one could summon ghosts to them, let alone transport people into the spirit world.

At the bottom of the page, there were two phone numbers: 997-684-771 and 997-657-281. She took out her phone, half-wondering whether she should call them.

A telltale wail cut through the silence, and suddenly, the door to the computer lab opened, slamming shut as Larry collapsed against the door. The three ghosts ran past the window, and he sighed in relief, his eyes finally falling on Maya.

"Maya?"

"You finally got out of the bathroom, huh?"

He gave a nervous chuckle that phased into a full laugh after a moment. "You can't imagine how great it is to see you! I thought I was a goner."

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. What are you doing here?"

"I don't know either. I woke up here."

"I did too! Huh, I wonder where we are." Larry scratched the back of his head, seemingly calm now that he had an ally.

"So . . . you don't recognize this place?"

"Not a bit. Then again, I was always bad with places. But I feel like I would have remembered a place with, ah—" He cut off, unwilling to say the word.

"Ghosts?" Maya supplied.

"Yeah. Wonder what they want."

"Have you seen anyone else here?" she asked. Maybe Nick and the others were wandering around somewhere, but the hope was dashed as soon as Larry shook his head.

"Nope. You're the first one I've seen that doesn't look all white and stuff."

There went that idea. She motioned to the computer. "Do you know anything about text messages?"

He sat down at the computer. He was silent as he read through it before finally looking back at her. "This all feels familiar . . ."

She put her hands on her hips. "Obviously! Larry, we sent those messages earlier! Remember? We were at Nick's office—"

"Oh yeah! And then Athena put in the movies and . . . huh, I must have slept through them."

Maya thought back, but it was all fuzzy. "I don't remember watching them either, now that I think about it."

He stared at the numbers on the bottom of the chat. "I could swear those weren't a part of it though."

"No, I didn't think so either. I don't recognize either of the numbers, though, really, who knows phone numbers these days?" The hair on the back of Maya's neck suddenly prickled, and she tugged on Larry's sleeve. "Come on, let's get out of here."

He followed her, though admittedly, he looked confused, still looking towards the computer as she dragged him towards the door. His gasp made her pause.

"Nick?!"

Phoenix Wright was there, hunched in front of the computer. He stood suddenly, and Maya realized he was semi-opaque, color drained from his entire being. In other words, he was as ghostly as the the three students.

Larry gave a shriek, sprinting out into the corridor, but she stayed rooted to the spot. This was Nick, the guy who had always come through for her. He'd tried to cross a burning bridge for her for Ami's sake; if she couldn't trust him, who could she trust? Besides, he didn't seem to be interested in attacking her. He vanished, and she walked towards the computer. Everything was the same except for the last line of the chat.

_"I need to tell Edgeworth."_

"Tell Edgeworth what?" Maya asked aloud, hands on her hips. As if to respond, Phoenix suddenly appeared at the door and phased through it. "Wait!" she shouted, sprinting after him. He walked down the hallway, and she followed him dutifully down to the second floor. The room he entered said "Art Room," and despite the fact that she could have sworn that it was locked earlier, the door opened easily. Phoenix vanished again, and she decided to look around.

The Art Room was a large room featuring a sculpture of some woman with no arms and a ton of ceramic busts. There was a divider behind the sculpture, hiding most of the far half of the room. Maya stepped inside hesitantly, her sixth sense going off complete with flashing lights. Nick's sudden disappearance reminded her of Missile's when the students had attacked. She brandished the flashlight around the room, and something moved behind the divider.

"I thought that you were a ghost," he said, and her heart leapt. She'd recognize that voice anywhere. "Glad to see that you're alive."

"Edgeworth!" Of course, the joy she'd said that with was fairly inappropriate for the situation, and she tried to smother it. "What are you doing here?!"

"I'm assuming the same thing you are. Or, the same reason, I suppose." He motioned to the table. "Do you know what's going on?"

She seated herself across from him, their flashlights sending a beam of light against the armless statue. "Not really. Have you seen Larry?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Yeah. I take it you've seen that idiot too."

"We were just in the computer lab together. But then he got scared and ran off somewhere."

"I'm sure he's fine, Maya." The mild amusement he'd had on his face just seconds before was replaced with concern as he stared at her. "Luckily, even on a good day, Larry's not much help. We'll have to figure things out on our own in order to help him."

Right. He was right. She couldn't give up hope now!

"According to Wright, we're stuck in some . . . place. I believe he called it—" he paused to shift through a few notebook papers, eventually sighing and shaking his head. He bit his lip, holding up a finger before finally saying, "—the Mnemonic Abyss. And we can move through it by calling numbers on our cell phones." He looked up, holding up the cell phone he took from his jacket pocket. "I can confirm that one. I've moved through a few different places now, all while calling numbers I've obtained in this abyss."

"You've been to other places already?" she asked, stunned.

He nodded. "Never for very long, and all of the other places I've been have been isolated. A few rooms at the most. This school is . . . massive in comparison."

Maya whipped out her phone, staring at it for a second. "To get home . . . wouldn't we just need to dial our own numbers? Then we could get to wherever our phone is."

Edgeworth shook his head. "I tried. The call doesn't go through. Not every number seems to work here. And because we're not sure how people get here, if we call their numbers, we could be . . . " He cut off suddenly and she shuddered at what he was implying. "Let's exchange the numbers we currently have. That way we have a way to contact each other for now." She looked into the phone's information for the number she wrote down on a piece of paper and he slid her a piece with his. He opened his mouth before shock flitted across his face, his eyes no longer on hers. "Wright."

She was barely able to turn around in time to see the back of Nick's suit jacket as he fled the room. Edgworth's expression changed to a determined one, and he pushed up from the table, pocketing his phone and the piece of paper with her number on it. "Maya, I'll handle him. You just... Just stay safe. You have my number if you need anything. Don't forget what I told you!" With that last word, he left the room.

Oh no, he wasn't about to leave her alone! She ran after him, freezing when the door slammed shut right in front of her with enough force to send something across the room tumbling to the ground with a loud CRASH. She stumbled backwards, whirling around, only to come face-to-face with a woman she had never thought she would see again. "Dahlia?"

"Maya." The woman gave a giggle, tilting her head and smiling angelically. White butterflies fluttered around her, but Maya wasn't fooled by the innocent demeanor. Dahlia Hawthorne was the worst of the worst; she had been responsible for Diego Armando's poisoning, her mother's murder, and Iris's guilt for so many years. "I hadn't expected to see you so soon."

What was she talking about? "What do you want?" Maya asked, her hand closing around her magatama reflexively.

Dahlia shook her head, flipping her hair over one pale shoulder. "It's not about what I want at all. It's about what you've done."

"Huh?" That caught her off guard. "What have _I_ done?"

"You killed her."

The words seemed to hang heavily in the air between them. Maya flinched, and then the anger started. How dare Dahlia accuse her of doing anything! She shook her head adamantly. "N—no! I didn't kill her. _You_ did."

The siren cocked a slender brow. "I haven't killed anyone."

"My mother! You killed my mother!" Maya said, taking a step forward.

"Oh, her?" Dahlia asked, sounding uninterested. She gave a sigh, twirling her parasol absentmindedly. "You're following the same path again." She took a few steps forward, and Maya went cold, backing up against the closed door. Dahlia's free hand closed around her elbow and images flashed past Maya's vision again.

A snowy mountain.

A dagger.

_Blood._

Dahlia stepped back, her charming mask back in place. "See you again soon, Maya." With another giggle, she vanished.

Maya dropped to her knees, her head spinning. What had Dahlia meant? What was going on? Those images of Hazakura Temple and the training area that she kept seeing . . . what were they? She caught her breath and then turned around and opened the door. A flash blinded her momentarily, and as her eyes readjusted, she realized that the cardboard box girl was standing in front of her. "Wait right there! I'll go get my friends, and we'll have you on the front page in no time!"

"Oh nononononononononono! You don't have to do that! No, don't do that!" Maya shouted, lunging out the door, but the girl vanished, leaving her clutching at thin air.

_Meow._

Maya turned, seeing the black cat with the bandanna halfway down the hall again. She thought about following it until it brushed up against her leg, purring, and then scampered down the staircase. How could something so adorable be bad? She followed it down to the first floor.

It walked past the Janitor's Office to the hallway she'd left unexplored earlier. She passed the principal's office before the cat stopped in front of the nurse's office, mewling and scratching at the door. A terrified sob sounded from within, and Maya could guess who was inside. "Thanks, little guy," she said, petting his ears. He reveled in the attention before running off again. She opened the door.

The nurse's office was empty. Like, almost completely empty. Besides a small desk pushed up against the wall and two privacy dividers for hospital beds, the only things were little health reminders on signs pasted on the wall. _"Wash your hands after touching raw poultry!" _one said, and she decided that she could skip reading the rest of them. Larry was sprawled across the nearest hospital bed, his hands over his face. He seemed to be murmuring something to himself, and as she got closer, she could hear, "I just want to go home. I just want to go home."

"Larry?"

He stilled, sitting up. "Oh. Hey, Maya."

She perched on the side of the bed. "How are you holding up?" she asked, trying to impart some cheerfulness into her voice. If she could fake it for Pearly, she could fake it for Larry, right? It definitely sounded like he needed it.

He gave a high-pitched laugh. "Oh, fine. Just fine. You know, with the constant ghosts and all."

"I saw Edgeworth," she said, trying to bolster him with some confidence.

"Like, as a ghost?"

She shook her head. "No! He's alive, like us."

This seemed to cheer him up immensely. "And if I know good ol' Edgey, he's got a plan, am I right?"

"Well, um," Maya tried to figure out a way to tell him that they hadn't quite gotten around to making a plan. "I think he's just gathering information at this point. Like, that, um . . . oh! We can use our cell phones to transport places!"

Larry blinked a few times. "Ex-squeeze me?"

"Like, if you call a phone number, I guess it'll send you to the location that the other phone is in." Theoretically, at least. She hadn't tried it out yet.

Larry leaped out of the bed, a grin wide on his face. "So, I just dial a phone number, right?"

"Right."

A cell phone was in his hand instantly, and he was dialing numbers before she could even process what was happening. "W—wait, Larry!" she tried to say, but he'd hit the send button and held the phone to his ear as she tried to stop him. The cell phone clattered to the floor, and she could hear him scream, but she blinked and he was gone. Completely vanished.

Edgeworth had been right.

She glanced down at her own cell phone. There were a lot of people she could call, but now that she was thinking it through, she couldn't seem to remember a single number. Besides, it wasn't like she knew where she'd be transported to even if she had called. What if whoever she called had been in danger at the time, and she found herself in a worse situation? Or, what if they were like Nick? Could she even call his number?

Larry's cell phone was on the floor, and she picked it up and shoved it in her pocket. It might come in handy, especially if she finally transported somewhere that didn't have a cell phone.

She had just exited the nurse's office when her first cell phone rang. It could very well be the ghost . . . or it could be Edgeworth, now that he had her number. She picked up. "Hello?"

_"Maya. Thank goodness you're still okay."_ He sounded out of breath for some reason.

"Edgeworth! Are you alright?"

_"I'm—Yes."_ His hesitation wasn't overly faith-inspiring, but she figured it would be the best she would get from him. _"But this place is very dangerous."_

"I'm realizing that." She could still hear him panting. "Have you been running?"

_"In a manner of speaking. Listen to me for a second. You need to get out of here. Those spirit things are violent. If you can find Larry, take him with you when you go."_

Awkward. "Um, about that . . . Larry sort of . . . transported without me already."

_"That useless little—"_

His anger was none of her concern at the moment though. "What about you? Shouldn't you go somewhere else too?"

She could hear his sigh as his tone gentled. _"I will. There's just something I need to find first. Don't forget to be careful about which numbers you call. We don't know how this will affect people outside of this place."_

"Then who should I call?"

There was an awkward pause. _"Try to find a number here, I suppose. Listen, after you teleport, I won't be able to contact you, so . . . be careful." _He hung up, leaving her with the dial tone.

She'd no sooner put the cell phone back in the pocket of her robe when the notification noise went off. She pulled it out to see a picture of the broken door on the fourth floor in a text message. The sender was anonymous, but the message was clear. Something was in there, and she wanted to know what it was. She had a guardian angel operating somewhere. Maybe it was Mia, she tried, hoping to comfort herself. The thought did make her feel better.

Yeah, that was what she'd go with. Mia had sent her the text message. Not some weird, creepy ghost thing waiting to lure her into danger.

She headed back towards the stairwell, making a quick detour when she heard a phone ringing in the Janitor's Office. Wait, how could there be a phone ringing when the electricity was out?

She stepped inside the room, still not quite surprised when there was no one in there. She picked up the phone, holding it to her ear.

_"Mother?"_ The voice was Pearl's. Maya had heard her call Morgan a million times, and every time, it was the same. _"When are you coming back? I just, I—I'm lonely. Ever since, well . . . you know . . ." _There was a quiet sob, and Maya pressed the phone more snugly against her ear, heartbroken. _"I just want to see you. I'll be a good girl, and I'll train every day. Come visit me soon, please. I love you._" The call ended, and Maya set the phone down, tearing up. Poor Pearly. Though, what had she been talking about? Ever since what?

What had made Pearly so lonely?

She shook it off. There wasn't much she could do until she got home, and then she'd spoil her favorite little cousin until Pearly didn't know what had hit her. Until then, Maya checked the text message again before setting back on the path to the fourth floor.

The walk up to the fourth floor was uneventful until the final set of stairs. She looked back, her sixth sense prickling, and saw a girl in a straw hat nestled into the corner of the stairwell, her head bowed. And then, once she'd gotten to the top, she glanced back at the stairwell, not sure what to expect, and saw the man with the splattered apron sitting on the top step, looking down.

She wasn't about to wait for him to look up.

The door was still locked when she got to it, and she rattled it to see if she could break it down. Nope, it stayed firm. She got on her hands and knees, peering through the crack in the door.

Two cell phones, and Edgeworth and Larry both having teleported. It was time to test it out for herself.

She checked the number on Larry's cell phone and dialed it into her own before throwing it inside of the room through the crack. She took a deep breath and then pressed the send button.

Everything faded around her, going black, and she instinctively shut her eyes. When she opened them again, she was inside of the classroom, Larry's phone next to her feet.

It had worked.

There was a glowing white light in the middle of the room, and Maya walked over to it, surprised when it didn't vanish. She could hear muted voices mumbling, but when she got closer, the voices got quieter.

The cell phone, still on the floor, vibrated. Maya walked back to it, surprised when there was a picture of the Record symbol on the screen. She brought the phone back over to where the voices were the strongest and pressed the record button. After a few seconds, it automatically began to play back.

_"Did you hear about the guy at the Internet Cafe?"_

_"Yeah. I bet he died from playing too many video games."_

_"Probably. Though it says he was a cartoon person, so maybe it was watching too many cartoons online."_

_"Whatever. Creepy stuff. Besides, a grown man alone in a private internet room? There's not much of a question about what's going on there."_

The recording cut off, and Maya wrinkled her nose. Gossip. Hardly any useful information. She put the phone back into her pocket and investigated the room further. There had been something radiating blue light, but she couldn't see anything lit here. She turned on the flashlight.

There was nothing special about this classroom. Thirty desks, all neatly in their rows. Dark windows that she couldn't see out of. There was a magazine perched on one desk, and she shone the light on it. It was an old edition of _Oh! Cult!_ magazine advertising Hazakura Temple. In fact, it looked really familiar, though Maya had been reading the magazine for the past ten years, so that wasn't surprising. There was a picture of Sister Bikini and someone else, but their face was covered up by a giant phone number written in red.

_997-494-582._

Maya didn't recognize the number, but there didn't seem to be much else in here and Edgeworth had recommended she go somewhere else. She pulled out her phone when she heard the voice behind her.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN?"

Oh no, not him again. Please, not him.

The boy in the painter's smock was back, flanked by the woman hiding in the cardboard box and the tall boy she'd seen earlier. Except, she was pretty sure the taller boy hadn't had something on his hands before. And whatever it was, smeared all over the tall object he was carrying, it looked a lot like blood.

Box girl hopped up, and another flash emitted from her hands. This time, Maya realized it was a camera. "You haven't stayed to see your scoop published!"

"That's okay," Maya mumbled, taking a few steps back. "I, uh, I don't need to-"

"I haven't shown you my genius yet," the taller boy said, getting closer.

They were closing in on her. And then she blinked, and the painter's smock boy tackled her.

She took out four desks as she fell, trying desperately to shake him off. The punch she landed hit him in the middle of the chest, but it was hard enough to make him jerk back so that she could find her footing again. Unfortunately, she hadn't realized the cardboard box inching up behind her until it rammed her in the back of the knees, making her fall backwards. The cell phone fell from her pocket, bouncing across the tile floor.

The phone. She needed to get out of here _fast_, and calling the other cell phone wasn't going to help, seeing as these ghosts could go through walls. She kicked the box, grimacing a bit when the girl inside yelped, and lunged for the phone.

"Looking for this?" The tall boy had scooped it up, coming closer until he dropped it right in front of her. She reached for it, and that was when the apron guy decided to tackle her again. The box ghost scooped the phone from the floor, just inches from her fingers before tossing the box onto Maya's head. Now blinded (by a ghost box; she wasn't sure how that actually worked), she put her head down against the floor to push up with her hands.

Something pierced through the top of the box.

A split second later, something else shattered on top of the cardboard.

Maya threw the box off, on her feet and grasping for the cell phone that the now-revealed box girl had set on a nearby desk. As quickly as she could, she dialed the first number she could think of.

_997-494-582_

She hit send, and to her relief, everything started going black. Her gaze fell upon the box, and she realized that an arrow was stuck through it and bits of pottery were scattered around it. The box girl looked at her box forlornly. "Why is it always my box?" she asked.

Everything faded out before Maya had a chance to hear the answer.

* * *

><p><strong>AN ::**

**Melody Canta ::**

**I can once again say, FINALLY! This chapter is done! Honestly, these re-written chapters aren't particularly exciting to rewrite, though it is nice to walk back through and add and subtract as I wish. Oddly enough, this chapter is longer than the original. Go figure.**

**Anyways, I believe the next chapter is also mine, and that one shouldn't take too much time, seeing as it's Larry's chapter rewritten. Any guesses on how that one is going to be different?**

**Also . . . MISSILEEEEEEEE!**

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**OK, this took a while to publish and it was kind of a team effort of procrastination; I finally reminded Melody to write it and then forgot to beta read it. Oops. Thankfully I think this chapter changed enough to still keep people interested. I certainly had fun figuring out the subtle changes in the things she chose to keep.**

**And yeah, next chapter's hers again (what have I done so far, 3? I swear, I've written quite a bit. . .), but don't write Edgy off yet! He'll be back with some fresh material right after Larry goes through hell again. Then it's plenty of redone chapters, I believe. My only words for upcoming Edgy: I _love_ the Themis academy students (even though Scuttlebutt's not a part of the actual trio, she's fun too), and my only regret is that I don't get to play with them as much as Melody did because a certain student (won't say who) really causes problems for everyone's favorite prosecutor. And, of course, Old Bag will return with a vengeance! Hopefully we'll hurry up and finish this. It's summer, but we're still shockingly busy. See you at the end of the next chapter!**


	11. The Turnabout Possession

**A/N :: This is a re-written chapter with a very slight variation at the end! Feel free to read through it completely (it's short, promise) or you can skip to the end for the new bits.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three :: The Turnabout Possession<strong>

Cell phones, a bathroom, three teenage girls, and a group text message. Larry Butz liked to think that he was a fairly easygoing guy, able to adapt to just about everything. The last hour, however, tested even him.

And where was he now?

It was a bedroom, though he was on the floor rather than the bed. Of course, it wasn't the first time he had ever slept on the floor. This was a pretty comfy rug though. There were two dressers and a nightstand with the ringing rotary phone and a cell phone on top of it. He took a few steps forward, still trying to process everything, simultaneously realizing he should answer the phone and the phone ceasing its constant ringing.

CRACK! The light bulb shattered, bathing the room in darkness. Larry screamed, pressing himself against the opposite wall. A few moments of silence passed. Nothing moved. Nothing happened. He let out a breath, starting to walk towards the nightstand.

The cell phone started ringing now.

He looked around, listening for the sign of anyone coming to answer it. Everything was quiet. Not a sound besides the ring of the phone.

He walked over to it, picking it up and flipping it open. "Hello?"

There was a raspy rattling, almost like someone was trying to breathe but had waterlogged lungs. When there had been silence for long enough that he was about to say hello again, there was a long sigh, and then, _"Even in death, the salt remains._" The voice had a dead, monotone quality about it, as if it had been expelled in a groan rather than breath.

"Uh, what? Hello?" But the dial tone had already returned, the caller gone.

Larry shut the phone, looking over his shoulder in paranoia. Where was this place? What did he mean, "the salt remains"?

What was going on?

He went to the door, testing the lock. The door swung open, almost of its own accord, and he crept out, looking around. It was still dark, but he could make out a door at the end of the hall. "Hello?" he called out, opening it.

It was a bathroom, complete with a toilet and shower. Tentatively, he flushed the toilet, a little surprised when it actually flushed, and perhaps more unnerved by that than normal. The sink worked too, though the shower didn't. He turned to leave, pausing when something moved to his left. He turned, looking out the window, when—

"DON'T IGNORE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

A man's face was pressed against the glass, though it was colorless and twisted into a horrifying scream. The hairbuns on the sides of his head were extended into long spirals, also white. In fact, the man was entirely white.

"Not another one!" Larry shouted, tripping as he ran out of the room and down the hallway. He didn't stop until he reached a closed door at the end of the L-shaped hallway, pulling at it in panic. The lock rattled, but didn't break.

Footsteps echoed behind him. Larry turned, coming face-to-face with yet another ghost, this one with a bowl of noodles overturned on his head. "Don't go in there," he growled, and before Larry could do anything, the man attacked, wrapping his hands around Larry's neck.

He thrashed, trying to get away from noodlebowl man, finally breaking the hold and gasping for air. He cowered against the door and the man vanished, leaving Larry alone and confused.

The door clicked, swinging open on its own again, and Larry darted inside, hoping for a respite. There was a short staircase, and it was dark, but he could see a flashlight in the dim light from the attic window. He turned it on and waved it around, lighting the boxes and the few dolls populating the room. He went to the nearest one, realizing as he came closer that it looked quite familiar. A short, portly nun in full robes reminiscent of Maya's. He picked it up, realizing too late that it was made of noodles. Slimy, cold noodles, stiff from the salt congealing on the surface. The base, made of plastic, had the inscription, "_To my darling Bikini."_

Bikini. The nun from that mountain. Why was there a noodle doll of her in this house?

Seriously. Who was so obsessed with the jolly woman that they made a doll of noodles in her likeness? The more he thought about it, the more his stomach churned.

"I can't do this," he muttered, beginning to back out of the room. "No way no way no way. Let me out of here." He fled back to the bedroom, perching on the side of the bed. "What's going on here?" he asked, glancing around warily. "I want to go home. Please, just tell me how to get home."

The cell phone rang.

He picked it up, almost disbelieving that the answer could be so easy.

"_They will never betray. They will always be loyal."_ It was the same voice as before, rasping and growling. And, he realized, the same voice as the noodlebowl guy who had attacked him earlier. He screamed, dropping the cell phone.

On one of the dressers, something rattled and gave off a series of high-pitched giggles.

He screamed again, running back to the attic. Nothing bad had happened here yet. Nothing had chased him or popped up and tried to kill him, and yes, the Bikini doll was creepy, but it was tolerable as long as he didn't touch it.

He moved through the stacks of boxes, trying to find a chair or something to sit on and wait it out, eventually coming to a sliding canvas door. He opened it a crack, finding that something was blocking it from opening any farther, and peeked inside.

Oh god. Oh no. There was a man sprawled on the floor, three lines of red glowing like a beacon in the dark. Was he dead? Maybe he was just sleeping, Larry attempted to justify to himself, just too tired to go down to the bedroom. All of the creepy phone calls, all of the people, they weren't here for him, but for the sleeping man. He opened his mouth, shining his flashlight inside in an attempt to wake the man, but something fell behind him before he could. He whipped around, his light darting around the room until it fell on the single doll head on the ground. "Is that it?" he asked, laughing at himself. "I guess I just need to calm dow—"

High-pitched giggles erupted from behind him.

He stepped back, whipping around to see noodle dolls crowded at the cracked door, rattling as they filled the small open crevice. He blinked, already starting to back away, and suddenly, noodles shot out, wrapping around the walls and shooting towards him.

He didn't need an invitation. He ran, hands cartwheeling out in front of him as he threw open the door and tried to shine the flashlight in front of him. The bathroom. The ghost was outside of the bathroom, pressed against the glass. It couldn't get in. He would be safe there. He would be safe—

Noodlebowl man shot up in front of him, hands wrapping around his throat again.

Nonononononononononono. This couldn't be happening. He had to get out of here. Had to get out of this house. What about his secret admirer? He would never find out who it was or why she had sent him that heart-shaped jewel . . .

The thought brought on a surge of adrenaline, and he got a hand between noodlebowl man's elbows, breaking the choke. The man vanished, and Larry rounded the corner, stopping short when he realized the door for the bathroom had completely vanished.

Two options. Go back and face the noodles or get phone calls and deal with rattling doll heads.

He chose the latter.

He slammed the door shut behind him, panting. The beam of the flashlight showed that he was alone, and he sank down to the floor. Talk about crazy. All of this, all of the ghosts and the dolls and the phone calls.

Speaking of phone calls, something was ringing.

He hesitated, looking at the cell phone in his hand, but it was silent. No, this was the rotary phone on the bedside table again.

He could just _not_ answer. There had been a lot of weird stuff so far related to the telephones, and he wasn't really excited for his next chat with Noodlebowl man. Then again, the weird chats could be exclusive to the cell phone (which he had resolved to never pick up again; it didn't matter if the weird stuff was with him or the unconscious/sleeping dude, he didn't want to hear about it anymore). And it could be something good on the other line. Maybe his secret admirer was calling with the way out of this place.

He picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

_"Just hold on, Harry. Hopefully, this time will be the last."_ The voice on the other end was soft and feminine, kindness seeping in through every alto utterance. It was reassuring, even though what she'd said didn't make much sense.

"Harry?" he asked, confused. Was she talking about him? His name was Larry.

And then his brain completely caught up. "Did it hurt when you fell from heav—"

There was a girlish giggle from behind him.

He turned, dropping the phone. Behind him was a woman, young and beautiful, with her hair in braids like a halo and a beatific smile. Butterflies fluttered around her, moving with her even as she took a few steps towards him. He swallowed the lump that was suddenly in his throat. He could tell that something was very wrong. For one, that giggle wasn't the same as the voice he'd just heard over the phone. But perhaps more importantly, with the flashlight beam falling on her, her hair looked like horns.

With her right hand, she held out the black magatama he'd woken without. "I think you're missing this."

His eyes widened. "You're my secret admirer?"

The woman took a few more steps towards him, until they were nearly nose-to-nose. "Yes. And believe me, we'll be together forever now." Her fingers closed around the magatama and suddenly, disembodied hands rose up out of the ground and moved towards him.

"W—Wait! Huh? What's going—?" The hands grasped his arms and legs, pulling him back against the wall as noodles started invading the room. They ran over his neck, reaching his face and smothering him with cold, slimy, salt-crusted noodles. He screamed, hoping that someone, anyone would come save him. The noodles invaded his mouth, and with a final wail, his lungs emptied of their remaining air. His body spasmed, hand dropping the flashlight, but resistance was futile.

The last thing he remembered was the sound of the woman's voice. Not the red-haired one, but the angel on the phone. _"Just hold on."_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **

**Melody Canta ::**

**Not really worth much of a re-read, is it? This one was easy enough to edit, since I can't really do much about it. Poor Larry. I almost feel bad. **

**Almost.**

**On the other hand, I did get to think of my favorite pick-up lines, so that was fun. Hopefully you picked up on who was on the phone, but if not, it'll become clear in due time. That being said, YAY! Next chapter is back to Shikola. New plot!**

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**Ah Larry. The guy we seem to think is caught in loop. How nice it is to know that this is the last time we'll have to worry about his chapter. Of course we'll still hear more of him.**

**Well damn. Next up is Edgy again, huh? I'd better get on that. We'll finish this story this summer. Of that much I am determined. But for now, bare with us. We know repetitive stuff is, well, redundant. But it's helpful to get this seemingly endless story straight. And at least Larry's chapter isn't a tough read anyways.**

**So I'll see you in the next chapter! I'd better go work on that. . .**

**(Very small) EDIT :: Changed it so that Mia actually says "Harry" rather than just having Larry hallucinate it. Oops. Good catch. 8/4/14**


	12. The Remnants

**Chapter Four :: The Remnants**

For once in his life, discussing Larry actually managed to put Edgeworth in a better mood. Maya's encounter with the putz only helped to reaffirm that the moron was just as useless as always. Though he didn't often find humor in Larry's incompetence, for some reason he found it comforting now.

"Luckily, even on a good day, Larry's not much help," he brought up, undeniably amused by the thought. Then it hit him. Larry really _was_ useless. So useless, in fact, that it was a miracle that the man had survived as long as he had in the abyss. A grave fear swept over him as he considered just how much danger they were all in. "We'll have to figure things out on our own in order to help him."

He went on to tell Maya all that he had learned about their situation from the notes that Phoenix had left behind, taking great care not to leave out any important details. Apparently she hadn't been anywhere but the school at that point, so he made sure to warn her about transporting with the phone. She wondered if calling her own number would get her home—just as he had assumed at the hotel—so he also got to explain how futile that was.

In the end, they exchanged their current phone numbers just before Phoenix appeared right behind Maya.

"Wright." The name barely escaped his lips when the ghostly attorney turned to leave the room. Maya looked over her shoulder and Edgeworth stood up quickly. She looked back at him, but he knew that he couldn't ask her to follow Phoenix. Not when he suspected that their old friend was. . . "Maya, I'll handle him. You just. . . Just stay safe. You have my number if you need anything. Don't forget what I told you!" And with that said, he ran out of the room after Phoenix.

Phoenix didn't disappear this time. He just continued down the hall as Edgeworth sprinted to catch up to him. Whenever Edgeworth got close enough to reach out to him, Phoenix would vanish and reappear way ahead. "Damn it, Wright. Where are you taking me?"

The silent lawyer led him all the way to another stairwell at the opposite side of the school from the one that he was used to and went down to the first floor. Edgeworth went after him, but once he reached the first floor, Phoenix was gone yet again.

"Seriously? Why can't we just talk about this like civilized people?" Unsure of where to go or what to do, Edgeworth wandered around the first floor in search of any sort of clue his friend may have left behind this time.

"HELLO!"

Edgeworth jumped and spun on his feet only to be relieved to find that the owner of the voice was none other than Missile. "Where did you disappear to? I've been through quite a bit and a little guard dog would have been nice to have around."

Missile whimpered. "Those three are mean. I wanted to help you, but I can't stop them."

Edgeworth rolled his eyes and crouched down to scratch his little companion's ears. "That's okay. I just sort of missed your company." Why he felt compelled to comfort the dog after all that its absence had put him through was beyond him, but he just couldn't stay mad.

"I missed you too, Mister Ruffles!"

"My name—"

"Is Miles! Right! Got it!"Edgeworth sighed. He wasn't sure why he insisted on correcting Missile; what could he expect from a dog anyways? "I waited for you down here though! I sniffed out more of your pocket paper!"

Edgeworth stood up straight and said, "Well then, lead the way, Missile."

The dog dashed off ahead of him again only to stop rather suddenly at the first door he came to to sniff around. "There's something in here," he noted curiously.

Edgeworth glanced up at the sign and read it aloud. "Library?" He looked down at Missile and asked, "Could you be any more specific? Is it a person in there, or one of my notes?"

"Ummm, neither I think," was all Missile had to offer. "But it seems interesting! Let's go check!" And he ran through the door, leaving Edgeworth with little choice but to tag along.

As soon as he was in the room, Edgeworth heard a familiar static sound. He pulled out the cell phone and found its recording function. "I need you to be quiet for a minute."

Missile's ears perked up and his tail whipped back and forth so fast that it looked almost like he had many separate tails instead of just the one, but he still managed to keep quiet until Edgeworth's phone beeped. "Your ears must be _really_ good to hear something that I couldn't, Ruffles!"

Edgeworth considered telling the dog about how something similar had happened before—at the hotel where he had dealt with the effeminate man—but the more he thought about it, the more difficult it became to explain. "Let's just listen for a second," he decided as he played back the recording. The static had once again taken on a new voice.

_"If you really want to be our friend then you have to go through a little initiation first,"_ a boy's voice said.

_"W-w-what kind of initiation?"_ The second voice was staccato, scratchy, and definitely belonged to a girl.

_"You have to buy us L-U-N-C-H!"_ It was difficult to tell the gender of the third voice; it sounded like a boy talking, but the style of speaking was undeniably effeminate.

_"No. Stop thinking about food for one second!"_ the boy snapped.

_"BUT I'M HUNGRY MAAAAAAAAAN!"_ Definitely another boy, Edgeworth determined.

_"Shut up. Her initiation will be to go a whole day without wearing that ridiculous box. . . and to call me a genius."_

_"And to buy me lunch, O-K-A-Y?"_

_"Um, but . . . I don't have any money."_

_"Whaaaat? That's not C-O-O-L! AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!" _Seriously, was this person a boy or a girl?

_CRASH!_

_"Hey! Watch where you throw those! Hit her, not me!"  
><em>

_"What? Don't hit me!"_

And that was where the recording ended. "That must have been the students and the box creature," Edgeworth mumbled to himself. "I wonder if Wright knew them— knows them!" he quickly corrected himself. "Just because people seem dead here doesn't mean that they really are! Wright and the students are just like the hotel man-lady-thing and Mr. Manella—who obviously couldn't be dead since his new series, the Golden Samurai, starts next month!"

"Mister Ruffles?" Edgeworth glanced down at Missile to find that the little dog was staring up at him with big, sad eyes. "Do you think that I'm dead?"

Though he wasn't one for sugar-coating the truth, the little dog's face tugged at his heart. "No! Of course not! I mean, you might be dead here but where I'm from, I'm sure you're livelier than any other dog and living happily with a family that you love and protect."

Missile tilted his head in the quaint way that Edgeworth had come to recognize as an action the little guy would make whenever he didn't understand something. "Where are you from?"

"The real world, of course," Edgeworth replied without a second thought. "That is, the world outside of this dream."

"So, am I just a dream?"

Edgeworth wasn't sure how to answer that. He figured that Missile had to be a part of his inexplicable nightmare, but at some point he had started to believe that the world was something more than a dream. If he thought about it, though, while Phoenix's notes had suggested that _he_ knew the people Edgeworth didn't recognize, where was the proof? Perhaps Edgeworth had just been running into strange people created by his own overactive imagination, and then gave them a mutual connection in order to make them seem more realistic.

But then what about Larry? Why would he dream about so many people in a deceased state, and keep that putz alive? And Maya! When he spoke to her, she had told him things that even he hadn't seen within the abyss and he took her at her word without questioning then. When did he start believing that the abyss was a reality of its own?

Fortunately, as a dog, Missile didn't dwell on the thought for very long. "Mr. Ruffles, there's some pocket paper just a little ways further. Shouldn't we go get it?"

Pulled back into the moment, Edgeworth nodded. "Of course. Lead on, Missile."

The little guy barked happily and hurried back out to the hall. He stopped just a few doors down and barked again to alert Edgeworth to his location. Upon reaching his trusty companion, Edgeworth checked the sign. It was the principal's office. Missile went in ahead as usual while Edgeworth was left with the grueling task of opening the door.

Inside was a typical office room with shelves full of books, diplomas, and files. Against the wall by the door was a large wooden desk. He went around it and found a notepad sitting out in the open. He picked it up and flipped through it quickly.

This particular note explained the school itself. Phoenix wrote about how the school closely resembled Themis Legal Academy; a large high school that focused on training its students to be judges, defense attorneys, or prosecutors. He wrote about documents he had found in the nurse's office that focused on three students that he was familiar with; Hugh O'Conner, Robin Newman, and Miriam Scuttlebutt. He wasn't able to explain why they were in the abyss, but he theorized that their presence brought the theme of the courtroom to mind. In the end he questioned whether or not this whole world might revolve around a matter of justice or possibly even some previous case.

Themis Legal Academy. Edgeworth had heard quite a bit about the school. Having studied law in Europe, he never did have the chance to visit the school himself. In fact, Franzisca often called it a fool's foolish school for foolishly fooled fools, but Edgeworth knew that Phoenix's newest apprentice had taken on the defense of a student suspected of murdering her teacher there.

During that case, there were a few friends of the accused that Phoenix had told him about. If this dream was singularly his—as Edgeworth knew all dreams that he experienced _should_ be—why was he encountering people that only Phoenix knew? Could some other dark force be at work? How could that even be possible?

"We should get moving," Edgeworth mumbled as he continued to stare at the notepad. "This mentions stuff at the nurse's office so we should—Ah!" He jumped when he found that the sunflower hat girl from the hotel had been hiding right out of his line of sight. Almost as suddenly as he had noticed her, she fell through the floor without causing him anymore trouble. "Damn it, Missile! A little warning would have been nice!" He swept his flashlight around the room, but the dog was nowhere to be seen. "Missile?" Recalling what he had found the last time the little dog had abandoned him, he felt a chill. He carefully tucked the notepad away and turned slowly to find that he was face-to-face with the tall, boy student who wore glasses. "GAH!"

Edgeworth fell backwards over the desk and watched in horror as the other student and the box creature joined him. Stuck on his back, he was able to get a good look at them which made each of them that much more frightening. The box was covered in strange graffiti and had human legs sticking out the bottom. The shorter student had an apron on with unidentifiable splotches all over it and a strange brace that must have been used to restrain something.

Finally, there was the tall boy. The reflection in his glasses hid his eyes (which was odd since the only light in the entire room was Edgeworth's flashlight) and blood was dripping from his hands.

"What kind of insane school is this?" Edgeworth practically screamed as he scrambled to get back onto his feet. Once up, he sprinted towards the door and made it back out to the hallway, where he proceeded to slam the door shut behind him. "This can't be happening! It's just a figment of my imagination. . . somehow. . . Just a really elaborate nightmare." He kept his back pressed against the door as he panted, but after a few moments he realized that nothing was happening.

Was it possible that the students had elected to leave him alone? Could he be so lucky?

He took one step away from the door and the tall student emerged, upside down from the ceiling, and took hold of his head.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS WRONG WITH THAT SCRIPT?" the student asked angrily.

"I don't know! Leave me alone!" Edgeworth tried desperately to free himself from the student's grasp while running down the hall. He managed to break free and kept on running. "I've got to get out of here!" He tried to remember where the stairwell was. He didn't think he had gotten very far on the first floor, but it seemed to take forever to get back. Once there, he took a moment to catch his breath. Almost immediately, the tall student dropped down from the ceiling again and caught him under his arms, lifting him right off the floor.

"I DID IT, I SAY! I'M THE MASTERMIND! DIDN'T YOU SEE MY BODY DOUBLE?"

"Put me down!" Edgeworth thrashed about until he was dropped back onto the floor. He landed awkwardly and immediately ran up the stairs. He made it up to the second floor and prayed that the students would leave him alone, but something caught his foot just as he reached the next flight. He looked down and saw the bloody hand pinning his shoe down. The boy emerged from the floor and laughed creepily.

"YOU HAVE TO REALIZE THAT ONLY MY GENIUS MIND COULD PULL OFF SUCH A FEAT!"

"Leave me alone!" Edgeworth tried to get away but tripped and slammed into the stairs. His chin hit a step, causing him to bite his lip pretty hard. In a state of sheer panic, he kicked his assailant off and crawled up to the third floor. Up there, he laid flat on his back and gasped for air. His heart had been racing so fast that he was afraid it would beat right out of his chest. He touched his hand to where he had bitten his lip and was horrified to find that it was bleeding. He could taste the salty, metallic substance, and it was scarier than anything he had faced thus far.

He sat up and looked around for somewhere that he might be able to seek refuge, then decided on a random classroom to shut himself up in. After a few minutes of silence, he figured that the students must have finally given up. "This is too real," he breathed. He recalled Maya and hastily drew out the phone and note with her number on it. After dialing, he held it up to his ear and felt his heart thudding in his chest as it rang a few times.

_"Hello?"_

"Hey! Thank goodness you're still okay."

_"Edgeworth? Are you alright?"_ She sounded really concerned, which brought him to his senses. Making her worry was pointless. She had enough to deal with without knowing about his problems.

"I'm. . ." Terrified. Bleeding. Fearing the worst. He couldn't tell her what was really going through his head. "Yes. . ." It was the best that he could muster. As mentally scolded himself for troubling her, he tried to come up with something that she might want to know. "But this place is really dangerous."

_"I'm realizing that."_ Her statement didn't reassure him in the slightest. _"Have you been running?"_

"In a manner of speaking." He really needed to get his little chase off his mind. "Listen to me for a second. You need to get out of here. Those spirit things are violent. If you can find Larry, take him with you when you go."

_"Um, about that. . . Larry sort of. . . transported without me already."_

"That useless little-"

_"What about you? Shouldn't you go somewhere else too?"_

Edgeworth sighed and covered his eyes with his hand. "I will. There's just something I need to find first. Don't forget to be careful about which numbers you call. We don't know how this will affect people outside of this place."

_"Then who should I call?"_

Edgeworth thought about it for a while. He could always give her a number, but the only ones he remembered were Franziska's and Larry's and neither place seemed all that great for her. "Try to find a number here, I suppose." It was a half-assed answer—and he knew it—but he really had nothing else to offer. "Listen, after you teleport, I won't be able to contact you, so. . . be careful."

He hung up before she could get another word in and checked his lip. The cut stung. He couldn't deny the pain. Was it possible that the stakes in this dream were real? If he was to get killed, would he ever get back to the other world? He came to realize that his only hope was Phoenix Wright. Whether or not the defense attorney knew how to escape, Edgeworth really had no other choice.

Confident that the hall was evil student free, he crept back out only to see Phoenix's face close up again. "GAH! Wright!" The pale lawyer reappeared right in front of a door with a glowing window before walking right through it. "He's like Missile," Edgeworth noted. He thought of the Pomeranian and felt a pang of sadness. "They have to be alive." He went into the room and heard the static sound again. Out of habit now, he recorded it on his phone and played it back. The voice that came through was extremely familiar.

_"I can't believe she's here."_ Phoenix._ "She has to be behind all of this. She must have brought us here with that black magatama. That at least means that most of them are safe. . . But what about the gang at the agency? Oh god. What have I done?"_

And it cut out there.

"Who is she?" Edgeworth asked out of frustration. "If the others are safe, what's happening to us?"

The sound of a clicking keyboard caught his attention. The source of the blue glow in the windows was a single computer in the room. He rushed over to it and saw, once again, the chat posted up. At the bottom, however, right after the number he had called to reach the school, was a little message: "I need to tell Edgeworth."

"Tell me _what_, Wright?" he yelled, fear and anger rising to the surface. He went to type something in response but noticed a business card left behind on the keyboard. It belonged to Phoenix. "Do you want me to call your number?" He couldn't make sense of that. Calling his own number didn't do anything and he didn't have his own cell phone on him so why would Phoenix have his? He seriously considered calling it but felt that he needed to retrieve the other notes first in case there was some sort of clue that he had missed. The only place that he could think to start was, sadly, the nurse's office back on the first floor. "Guess I'll see you soon, Wright." He left the computer room and was greeted by a familiar face at the door.

"HELLO!"

"Do you have any idea what I just went through?" Edgeworth snapped at the dog.

Missile whimpered and covered his nose with his paws. "I'm sorry, Ruffles! They just scare me so much!"

Edgeworth felt like a bully, blaming his problems on a small, defenseless animal. "Never mind. I just wish I knew where you ran off to sometimes."

"I keep busy, I swear! In fact, I found another bit of pocket paper!" Missile assured him.

Edgeworth pet the dog a bit to calm himself down and Missile whimpered. "You're bleeding," the little guy noted. He hopped up and licked at the head prosecutor's lip, knocking him off his feet.

"Ow, ow, hey! I'm fine! Cut it out!" The dog yipped happily and his tail wagged faster than ever as he let Edgeworth get back up. "Alright then, you little mutt," he said, voice devoid of malice, "where to?"

Back down on the second floor, Missile homed in classroom 1-6. Instead of going ahead this time, he waited for Edgeworth to open the door. This, at least, made him feel a bit more at ease. They stepped inside together and found another notepad sitting on a dirty desk. The note talked about Phoenix's theories on the black magatama. It explained how just touching it was enough for him to notice something evil about it. The spiritual essence surrounding it reminded him vaguely of . . . "Dahlia Hawthorne." Once Edgeworth said her name the whole thing became more than he could handle. Dahlia, the girl who had tried so hard to ruin everyone's lives. She nearly killed Maya. Worse, she nearly made little Pearl kill Maya. Hawthorne was the root of many problems in the past. She was an absolute menace.

And she sought her revenge long after her death.

"This abyss is her doing?" The danger was more imminent than he had ever imagined. "We have to find those notes," he decided. The severity of the situation finally dawned on him. "Hopefully Maya has already transported away from here, so calling her phone will only slow us down. We have to hope that she's safe."

"Maya? She smells like hamburgers!"

Edgeworth was a bit relieved to know that his furry guardian had helped Maya earlier as well. "Okay, Missile. There's one other place I have to go, but all of the offices are back on the first floor. Can you promise me one thing?"

"OF COURSE!"

"Will you bark before you disappear?"

"YES!"

With that issue resolved, they went back down to the first floor without incident and all the way to the nurse's office door before Missile started growling. "I think it's nothing. I just feel like something bad is in there."

"Well last time you thought something was in a room it turned out to be nothing more than white noise," he reminded Missile. "But in case there is something, I'll know it's there because you'll bark before disappearing, right?"

"RIGHT!"

Edgeworth took a couple steps into the nurse's office and wasn't even greeted by the strange static sound. "See, Missile? There's nothing in here to worry about."

"YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP!"

Edgeworth tensed up and looked around, but there was still nothing out of place. "Honestly, what are you barking at?" All of the sudden something hard and heavy slammed into the back of his head, dropping him like a rock. He watched the phone as it slipped out of his pocket and was sent flying across the floor, but more stuff fell on top of him so he had no choice but to curl up and try to cover his head. When the onslaught finally ended, he opened his eyes and looked towards the phone only to see the tall student picking it up and disappearing with it.

Now, phone-less, Missile-less, and missing most of Phoenix's notes, Edgeworth felt trapped. He sat up and realized that all the contents from the top of the bookshelf in the room were what had assaulted him. He rubbed the spot on his head where he was certain a bruise would form and grumbled, "Was that really necessary?" Then he noticed the three files that had been scattered on the floor around him. He gathered them up and sat down comfortably to read over them. On each one was one of the names that belonged to the students that Phoenix had mentioned.

* * *

><p><em>MIRIAM SCUTTLEBUTT: Judge Program.<em>

_Suffers from serious anti-social disorder. Symptoms include hiding beneath a box while at school. Her position as the journalism club president only seems to encourage her anti-social behavior. Interacting with Woods, Newman, and O'Conner might help to get her out of her shell._

* * *

><p><em>ROBIN NEWMAN: Prosecution Program.<em>

_Only recently allowed the health center to release her actual gender for her school records. Over-usage of her brace and pressure from her father have built up a lot of stress that gets turned into violent outbursts quite often. More work in the art department will help to keep her mind busy, but she needs to stop breaking the ceramic pots all over the place. Her renewed friendship with Woods and O'Conner has also proven to lighten her mood._

* * *

><p><em>HUGH O'CONNER: Defense Program.<em>

_Finally taking his studies seriously after learning that his genius was nothing more than what his parents had bought for him. Between studies and part-time jobs, however, he has often brought himself to the point of total exhaustion. Thankfully the cut in his hand has recovered enough for him to return to the archery club. It would seem that the thought of showing off for the girls has boosted his confidence._

* * *

><p>"Defense program, huh? No wonder I don't like him," Edgeworth scoffed. "So these are the students." It was nice to know that they weren't evil all the time. "An overly-enthusiastic prosecutor and a less-than-genius defense attorney." He slapped his forehead and mumbled, "That certainly does sound familiar."<p>

Figuring that the files would be too troublesome to carry around, he chose to leave them behind. Still sitting on the floor, he took a moment to breathe and noticed something. He put his head to the floor and saw a scrap of paper on the far side of the sickbed. He got up and went around the bed to retrieve it. All that was written on it was another number and the name Eldoon. "The noodle guy? Really?" It seemed like an odd person to call, but the other option he had was a little creepy. Either way, he no longer had a phone and thus had no means of transporting anyways.

"Missile? Are you still around here somewhere?" There was no response, so Edgeworth gathered his thoughts to leave. He didn't remember closing the door, but it was shut when he got back to it. "Missile?" He opened it and peeked out to see the tall student, Hugh, walking slowly down the hallway.

Edgeworth swallowed hard and took a cautious step out. The student didn't look back so he quietly followed behind in hopes of retrieving the phone somehow. Hugh went for the stairs and Edgeworth lost him around the bend. Right when he reached the second floor, the tall student dropped down from the ceiling and attacked yet again. His attack didn't have the same enthusiasm that they had before, however, and it wasn't too difficult for Edgeworth to shake him off. Once he had torn free, Hugh continued to pace along slowly ahead of him.

"Is that how we're going to play this?" He continued to follow behind the wannabe defense attorney all the way up to the fourth floor. Occasionally, if he got too close, Hugh would attack him again, but he was never hard to shake off.

Finally, Edgeworth reached the fourth floor and the door to the stairwell slammed shut as soon as he was out of the way. "Guess I'll just stay up here then," he mumbled as he looked around for his fiendish guide. Hugh was further down the hall to the left of the stairs. He turned abruptly and walked right though the door to the classroom labeled 3-2. Edgeworth waited a bit to see if he would return before going to check the room.

He cringed upon seeing the door. The glass was broken in a small corner of the window and the lower part was splintered—almost as if someone had clawed at the door. He reached for the handle and discovered that it was thoroughly stuck on the track. Determined to get inside, he put a foot against the door frame and pulled with all his might. Like a latch somewhere had released, it flew open and he saw the box-girl inside. She squeaked, surprised by his sudden appearance, and faded away leaving all of his notes behind for him on the floor.

"Finally." He went right to them and organized them, but as he started to put them away in his pocket he heard the door slam shut behind him. He finished tucking them away slowly and stood up. He pointed back at the door with his flashlight, but there was nothing there. He approached it cautiously and the feeling of terror only got worse, though there was still nothing there that he could see. So he peeked out of the little hole in the glass and saw what was waiting for him.

The old woman in red was standing across the hall. He felt bound to where he was; all of his body's normal functions shut down. It was like staring into the face of death itself.

And she stared back.

Blood rushed to his head as he head as he held his breath, but the silence only allowed him to better hear her raspy breathing. She sucked in air like an old windbag and exhaled so loudly that, if he wasn't looking right at her, he would have sworn that she was much closer. Her horrible, squinted eyes sized him up hungrily and he could see her cracked lips twitch slightly into a bone-chilling smile.

"EEEEEEEDDDGGGGYYYYYYYY. . . POOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Her growling voice made every hair on his body stand up on end, but just when he was afraid that she couldn't get any more frightening, she vanished.

With her presence completely gone, it felt like he had been spared—but only for now. "I have _got_ to get out of here."

He went back out to the hallway only after he was certain that she wouldn't show up again, and had half a mind to call for Missile. But something caught his attention.

Someone was playing a piano nearby.

Edgeworth expected any music in that abyss to be completely awful, but the song was rather upbeat and whimsical. He followed the sound down the hall until he came upon a classroom marked "music room". He slid the door open as quietly as he could and peered in to see the box-girl and Hugh standing by the piano as the third one, Robin, played the song. Sitting on the piano was the cell phone that had been stolen. The whole scene was eerily peaceful.

The music stopped abruptly and Edgeworth pulled his head out and hid against the wall of the hallway, praying that they hadn't seen him. It didn't take long for the music to resume and he gave a sigh of relief.

The way he saw it, he had two options at this point: he could go on playing cat and mouse with the students at the school, or he could get the phone and get the hell out of there.

He steeled his nerves and shut off his flashlight in preparation. Then he made a mad dash into the room, scrambled around desks and instruments, and finally reached the piano where he retrieved the phone. Only after he had it in his hand did the music stop. He swallowed hard and looked at Robin only to see her giving him an angry glare.

Edgeworth gasped and sprinted back towards the door knowing full well that the students were behind him and extremely upset with him. He managed to make it out to the hallway without incident, but he didn't dare stop running. He flipped open the phone while fleeing and a chill ran down his spine. There was a new message from RED and it opened automatically to a picture of a scribbled message that said repeatedly, "I WANT TO BE WITH YOU, EDGEYPOO. I WANT TO BE WITH YOU, EDGEYPOO. I WANT TO BE WITH YOU, EDGEYPOO." He deleted the message quickly and pulled out the card with the noodle man's number. It hardly took any time to punch in the numbers, and he disappeared while still running.

Never before had the looming darkness that accompanied transporting felt like such a slap in the face. It was like running into a wall, knocking himself out, and waking up someplace entirely new. He found himself on the dusty floor of what felt like an attic. He got onto his knees, raised his flashlight, and turned it on just in time to see hundreds of little doll faces held back by nothing more than a cracked open screen door. The most frightening part was the fact that they were rattling and giggling at him.

The doors slid shut and the evil ruckus ended as soon as they were closed. "Can this abyss possibly be any more awful?" he wondered out loud as he stood up. He checked around his new surroundings and saw many cast away doll heads and heaps of discarded noodles. The most interesting thing in the room was a plump doll made of congealed noodles that closely resembled the jolly old nun, Bikini. "Sorry I asked," he mumbled.

Ready to get on with things, Edgeworth decided to search for whatever cell phone he had called to get there. First he figured that it might be on the other side of the sliding doors, but the moment that he touched them a hand caught his shoulder and forced him to turn around and face a ghastly version of the noisy noodle peddler.

"DON'T GO IN THERE. . ." the specter warned before fading away. He was, without a doubt, the gentlest ghost Edgeworth had encountered thus far. Where he had been standing, a phone had been left behind.

"Message received," Edgeworth muttered as he retrieved the phone. He put it in his pocket and proceeded to the only other door in the room. Oddly enough, this particular door had been left wide open. It had a small, rickety staircase that led to a narrow hallway right outside—suggesting that the room he was in had, in fact, been an attic—and the hallway only had one turn that led to two other doors.

Edgeworth found himself hoping that the noodle man didn't actually live in such a small place surrounded by piles of soggy noodles, but it didn't really surprise him. He had always found Phoenix's favorite noodle shop's owner to be a little off kilter, but it was still disconcerting to thing that anyone could live like that.

When he came upon the first door he was shocked and disgusted to find that it was held shut by many thin noodles. He tried to pry it open but the noodles were unnaturally firm. As he turned to check the next door at the end of the hall he heard a familiar whimpering. He pressed his ear to the door to confirm it and heard: "Hello? . . . Did it hurt when you fell from. . ."

"Yep. Definitely Larry."

Figuring that the moron could hold on long enough for him to find another way in, he checked the other door and discovered another grimy bathroom. "Not again." He was just about to close the door when he noticed a scrap of paper on the window ledge. He retrieved it carefully and read its contents to himself.

* * *

><p><em>As long as the call goes through, it seems possible to transport anywhere and each location is created by my ideas about people. Clearly I need to be less imaginative. This place is weird. But there are some numbers she absolutely won't let me call. Almost killed me last time I tried one.<em>

* * *

><p>"Okay. Got to be careful about this whole delicate situation," Edgeworth decided.<p>

"AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

The painful scream made Edgeworth let go of the scrap of paper and it fluttered slowly into the toilet bowl, forever lost since there was no way that he was going to fish it out.

"Larry?" He ran back to the noodle-sealed door and pounded his fist against it as hard as he could. "Larry! Can you hear me?"

There was no mistaking that cry. It was the one that Larry made randomly back at the agency; the cry that freaked out poor Trucy and snapped him out of a more peaceful state of sleep.

"LARRY!"

A resounding thud came from the other side of the door, but no other response followed it. He felt obligated to help the idiot somehow, so he pulled out the phone and, recalling the lone pair of scissors at the salon, called Franziska's number.

In no time, he found himself back on the floor of the salon's lounge. Oddly enough, the lights were off again. He pulled himself up, using the table, and plucked the phone from it before clicking on his flashlight and heading for the light switch. Unlike last time, it didn't seem to work. Feeling a bit nervous, he pointed his flashlight down at the salon heads and saw that they were still sitting upright and looking at the mini fridge, though it looked like one was missing. Trying hard not to dwell on the head's absence, he left the lounge and hurried over to the salon floor. He checked the tray where the scissors had been before and discovered that they were gone. "Well now what?"

"FOOL!"

Edgeworth flinched. The sound certainly wasn't coming from his cell phone this time. He turned slowly towards the mirror on the wall and watched in horror as Franziska crawled out of it. When she was about halfway out she looked up at him and disappeared, only to reappear inches away from him. He stumbled back just far enough to watch her swipe at him with the scissors that he'd been looking for.

"Franziska! Can't we just talk about this?" he cried. But it didn't seem to get through to her at all as she went about laughing maniacally and threatening him with the scissors. She inched her way towards him, forcing him to retreat with his hands up. "Please, it's me! You don't really want to kill me, right?" But she went on cackling and swiped at him again.

The corner of the counter jabbed into his back and he gasped. She lunged at him and he just barely managed to roll out of her way. He watched in horror as the scissors jammed into the counter top with so much force that they got stuck in the wood. While she tried to pull them out, he ran for the lounge and slammed the door shut behind him. Then he recalled Missile and the students, and realized that Franziska could likely go through doors as well (hell, she had come out of a mirror already). He decided that his best chance for survival would be to hide in a locker before she had a chance to come in and see him. Whether or not she could sense him was something he'd have to worry about later. So he ran over to the middle locker—where he had first retrieved the flashlight—and threw it open.

Inside sat the missing salon head—the one with the messy blond hair and glasses—and he slammed it shut. "Nope!" he yelped as he backed away from the locker fearfully. Then he heard something slam into the door and he looked back only to find that Franziska hadn't come through it.

_THUMP!_

The whole thing shook like someone much bigger than the young von Karma was pounding on it.

_THUMP!_

While he was relieved that she hadn't come through the door to impale him on the scissors, he couldn't help but wonder why she wasn't just phasing through it.

_THUMP!_

Still, Franziska was horrifyingly persistent and all he could do was wait in that room hoping that she would go away and leave the scissors behind. He considered calling another number to escape her wrath, but, well, Larry's cry probably meant that Edgeworth didn't have much time to help the poor man.

A couple minutes passed with no further activity at the door. When he finally felt the courage to emerge, he went back out to the salon floor and found that there wasn't a trace of Franziska or the scissors anywhere. "Damn." He wasn't sure how to get into the room with Larry without them. Then he noticed that the salon door wasn't open all the way. He returned to it and closed it slowly only to discover that the scissors had been wedged deeply in the wood. Though the nagging thought crossed his mind, he didn't dare say it out loud.

_That could have been me. . ._

He ripped the scissors free and dug the note with the noodle man's number out of his pocket. He dialed it quickly.

Back on the floor of the hallway of the noodle house, he routinely retrieved the cellphone, tucked it away, and stood up. The scissors were still in his hand so he took his flashlight out and cut the noodles just enough to get the door open.

Without any hesitation, Edgeworth burst into the room expecting to find Larry. But nothing more than a quiet room awaited him inside. "Larry?" No reply. The silence was deafening. "Damn it. Did he transport again?"

Thankfully his trip wasn't without its rewards, since a notepad was sitting on the bed. This note explained that the ghosts couldn't travel anywhere that they wanted. Phoenix had noticed that some were bound to different locations, some to specific rooms, and a chosen few could go between locations. He speculated whether or not that had to do with how they became a part of the world or why they were there at all. He even wondered if they were supposed to play specific roles in the abyss. Was it possible that Dahlia was doing this to them?

The thought sent shivers down Edgeworth's spine, but he got over it quickly when a small card fell out of the notepad and landed on the edge of the bed. He picked it up and stared at it long and hard, but the font was too small and his glasses were too filthy to make out what was on it.

He tucked the note and card away for the time being and took off his glasses to clean them on the bottom of his shirt. When he brought the lenses down to the end of his clothes, he realized that he was still wearing the pajamas that he had on when he went to visit Trucy at the agency. "How humiliating. . ." He hoped that, in spite of all the things that suggested otherwise, Maya was nothing more than a dream and she hadn't seen him in anything less than his finest suit.

The thought distracted him enough that he managed to knock his glasses out of his own hands and they bounced off his shoe, skidding under the bed. "Perfect." He got down on his hands and knees and pointed the flashlight under the bed only to see Larry holding onto his spectacles. But it wasn't the Larry that he'd seen back at the school. This Larry was as pale and horrible as Franziska was. He crawled alarmingly fast, out from under the bed, and wasted no time before attacking his old friend, throwing himself at the prosecutor and reaching towards his face.

"EDGYYYYYYY! HELP MEEEEEEE!"

"I tried!" Edgeworth protested sadly. "I came as soon as I could!" He managed to throw Larry off of him and his old friend whimpered before disappearing. "Damn it all. I tried, Larry."

He sat on the floor by the bed for a moment to go over the facts and compose himself. Franziska and the others weren't a part of this world. They weren't anywhere near the black magatama. But then there was Phoenix, Maya, and Larry.

Were Phoenix and Larry. . . dead?

Edgeworth couldn't believe that. He had to believe that there was still some way to save them.

He found his glasses on the floor, cleaned them off quickly, and checked the card again. It was a hospital business card with a phone number on it. He dialed the number thoughtfully and sighed. "Hang in there, Maya. I'll figure this out."

And he made the call.

* * *

><p><strong>AN ::**

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**The nice thing about fan fiction is that the characters are typically pre-developed. That's also what makes it so hard, though, because it gives you the task of staying consistent with that character's predetermined characteristics. So making Miles Edgeworth, the man who didn't believe in spiritual things (even after using the magatama), believe that he wasn't in a dream was tricky. Of course that makes him slipping that much more dramatic, which was nice, but also makes the tragedies seem that much sadder. I can honestly say it never occurred to me that Larry's death would have any impact on Edgeworth until I wrote out the reactions. Idiot or not, Larry was close to Edgeworth (in a way) and Edgy has no way of knowing whether or not the guy is dead at this point (not to mention that I pronounced all of them dead in the epilogue thing). It's been fun sending everyone's favorite prosecutor through an emotional roller coaster, but know that it's a real pain at times too because I want him to be believable, but believably Edgeworth.**

**As for the actual contents of the chapter and not just my issues with Edgy's personality, what did you think of Franziska's encounter? It may seem weird to have her playing the part of the "hairstylist" from Calling, but that's got a great back-story. You see, Melody and I had to take extensive notes on the game because there is no online script and there's a ton of stuff in the game that's not covered well (if at all) in what few guides are available for it online. So, in order to take notes, we binged the game over the course of 2 days. We had played it before, but Melody had never tried out the encounter with the hair stylist. She's tough because she forces you to move backwards and one touch results in an instant death—something that doesn't happen often in this game. Well, when we plotted out a tentative character list for this whole thing I thought it would be funny to have a scene were Franziska threatened Edgeworth with scissors like a homicidal maniac. Then, when we reached the actual part in the game, Melody got stuck and the stylist caught Makoto. We still didn't get why it resulted in instant death until we watched in horror as she jabbed the scissors into Makoto's stomach, left him on the ground, and walked over him laughing. Having already established the evilest girl in the Ace Attorney series in our story, it just made sense to go with the meanest and, while we couldn't justify Edgeworth seeking a whip to open a door, she still seemed pretty cruel with scissors. It seemed like a real match made in hell.**

**Sorry for rambling, but one more thing! I hope everybody's still enjoying our story. Edgeworth's trials are still in the early stages, though, and he's got plenty more trouble yet to come, but not for a little while (sorry die-hard Edgeworth fans). There are two more repeated chapters that will come first; one with Maya, and then Godot's again. I promise to try and make Godot's chapter as fresh as possible, but his marks the turning point where things really get revealed.**

**To respond to some of our reader reviews: _kightofdestiny_, thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying my work! Sorry for the waiting. That's becoming mostly my fault at this point. But Melody's about ready to light a fire under my butt, so things should go faster soon. _4cherryblossoms_: Godot will be my next chapter, but it will be a repeat chapter like some of Melody's have been. HOWEVER, Godot's repeat chapter will have many changes and it will explain more on why this is happening twice. Plus, who doesn't love Godot, right? And _Ringmaster118_, the house that we have claimed as Eldoon's is full of dolls and doll pieces in Calling. Originally our pun was that they were noo-dolls (don't hurt me) and so, to put an Ace Attorney edge on things, we covered the house with noodles. Yep. Strange. The scream I'm assuming was Larry (he doesn't get a very manly cry) and the woman who called Larry was Mia, but the one who killed him was Dahlia. Hope that clears the air.**

**Edgy will be back soon, so for now let him catch his breath and mourn the loss of Larry. See you soon!**

**Melody Canta :: **

**Oh, Franziska! The hairstylist is my favorite ghost in the game (especially since if you open the door when she's still pounding on it, she grabs the handle from you IMMEDIATELY and stabs you again. Funniest thing I've played in a while), so this one is definitely one of my favorite chapters. **

**Poor Edgeworth. As Shikola mentioned, we've been attempting to stay in character for this, which is difficult in some respects and not so much in others. Rin (Maya's character) doesn't have a ton of personality, so putting Maya in there has really been just an exercise in strong character and making her interact with others. Shin (Larry's character) on the other hand is semi-similar? Just writing Larry in character is an exercise in restraint, so I hope we've been doing okay. This fanfic has been nice because it's allowed us to really delve into some of the relationships that aren't talked about (Maya and Larry, Edgeworth and Larry, Edgeworth and Maya) and start to understand these characters a little better (I love some of the Edgeworth and Maya conversations. They're a close second after Maya and Pearl interactions).**

**Anyways, next is me again. Time to remind you all what happens to Maya after this (and a special guest appears? Maybe our favorite woman in red?)**


	13. The Turnabout Wandering

**A/N :: Once again, this is a rewritten chapter. However, I recommend at least skimming over it for the new material.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five :: The Wandering Turnabout<strong>

When the darkness began to fade to the corners of her vision and it was obvious that she was no longer in that crazy school, Maya gave a deep sigh of relief, her whole body going lax until she was seated on the floor. Edgeworth had been right; the school had been dangerous, though he hadn't mentioned the three reasons.

Of course, she hadn't wanted to meet all three at once.

She turned her flashlight back on to look for the light switch, unsurprised to find that the power also seemed to be out wherever she was now. She started looking around. She was in a tiny, cramped room with a computer desk on one side and a locked door on the other. Posters for various things littered the walls, but she found exactly what she was looking for as soon as she waved her light along the floor. A cell phone sat in the corner. Edgeworth had again been right; this wasn't the same phone she had started with. This one had a red case on it, and a fairly scandalous picture of the Pink Princess as its background. "Ew?" she said, flipping the phone closed.

There was the sound of someone typing, and she wondered if it could be Phoenix trying to communicate (though his last message had hardly been helpful; "_I need to tell Edgeworth"_? What, he didn't want to share it with her too? She looked up to see the very pale, very large image of Sal Manella hacking away at the computer. Saliva was dripping down one side of his mouth as he muttered, "D3adline. H4ve 2 m33t the d3adline." She took a step closer, and he faded away.

She might consider him a genius, but every time she saw him, she was reminded just how creepy he actually was.

The computer chair he'd been sitting in had a slip of paper in it, and she picked it up.

* * *

><p><em>29<em>

* * *

><p>She wasn't sure why, but as soon as she read the number, she knew what it was for. Perhaps it was a flash of intuition, but it was hardly important. She found the poster on the wall and looked under it to find the box with the combination lock. That's what the note had to be about: the combination to the lock. It took her a few minutes, but she eventually managed to get the lock to say <em>29<em>, and it clicked, opening. She took off the lid and almost screamed before she realized what she was looking at. They were pieces of a doll, but it looked lifelike enough that she had mistaken it for pieces of a person as soon as she'd seen it. She took a minute to catch her breath before laughing at herself. This was Sal Manella's box after all; what, did she think him some sort of serial killer that put people's limbs in boxes or something?

She immediately regretted the thought as a chill ran down her spine. Despite the fact that there might be something more useful in the box, she suddenly didn't want to touch it.

Grasping each piece between her thumb and forefinger, taking care to touch as little of the plastic as possible, she pulled out a calf, kneecap, half of a pelvis, and four fingers before she finally saw the paper sitting between the remaining pieces. It was a business card, printed on hearty cardstock.

* * *

><p><em>Bruto Cadaverini - 997-818-662<em>

* * *

><p>Another phone number! Finally! Armed with her own thoughts, she'd had enough of this place to last a lifetime. There was no way she was coming back here. She pulled out the cell phone, wrinkling her nose at the picture of the Pink Princess, and dialed.<p>

_997-818-662_

Everything faded, and it wasn't until the air cooled and the noises stilled that she opened her eyes again. The new room was pitch black, and again, she had to turn on her flashlight before she could see anything. Of course, once she had, she wished she hadn't.

Dolls. There were dolls. _Everywhere_. They were all turned towards her, staring at her with empty eyes.

There were shelves on both sides of the room, covered with dolls made of long strands of something on every square inch. She recognized a few of them—Mike Meekins was on the bottom row on her left—but most of them she didn't know. She picked up the nearest one and put it back almost immediately, grossed out. They were made of noodles. Unfortunately, the noodles seemed to be crusted over with a thick layer of . . . well, _something. _She wiped her hands on the long tablecloth on the shelf, She certainly wasn't going to touch those again.

She turned towards the door. Three beams of red cut through the darkness, coming from the ground, and she shined her flashlight on the source.

It was a man. He had tanned skin and white hair, though some of it was hidden by the visor with the three glowing red bars across it. He wore a dark green shirt and white pinstriped vest, and there was something about the entire ensemble that seemed so _familiar_. She looked at him for a long minute, trying to think of where she'd seen him before, but after a while, she had to admit that she had no clue.

"Hello?" she asked, walking closer to him when he didn't respond. He had color, unlike the ghosts, and when she reached down to pull at his shirt, it was solid. He didn't even stir, however.

Her attention was drawn to the cell phone by the table next to him. Had he transported here like she had? But what had happened to him that he wasn't waking up? She reached for the phone only to have it snatched away by a hand that darted out from under the tablecloth. "For science!" something said, and Maya pounced, but it was already gone. She pulled the tablecloth aside. There was no one under the table. Just great. A disembodied hand had stolen the cell phone she needed and disappeared.

Was today 'Pick on Maya' Day or something?

She turned back to the doors. They were the old-fashioned Japanese sliding style, which matched the tatami mat carpeting the owner seemed to have gone for. She tugged on the doors, but they didn't move. There were more dolls—though these ones were actual dolls, not noodles—and a strange black blob in front of the door.

Was this another puzzle for her to solve? Bring it on! She'd been a pro at the other puzzles. Of course, she'd also had some spark of divine wisdom for the others that hadn't seemed to come yet. She picked up the doll in front with the red kimono on, but it disappeared from her hands before she could toss it somewhere. The black blob grew bigger. The doll went back to its original place.

Was that wrong? That felt wrong, but she couldn't tell. But there had to be a clue somewhere around here. She looked around, only to be stopped by a groan coming from behind her.

The man on the floor sat up, looking around. "What—?" he started to say, only to stop and look around. "Where am I?"

Maya crouched down, hoping something would trigger her memory of him now that he was awake. So far, no good. Still, it would be best to make friends with this guy. If he was dangerous, she was screwed; there was nowhere she could run with the doors locked and she had no cell phone to teleport away with. "Um, hello?"

He jumped, his visor blinding her as he whipped his head around. "Who are you? Where are we?"

"I don't really know where we are. Sorry." She shrank back, suddenly intimidated. Sure, she'd been the one to surprise him, but all of a sudden, it felt like he had the upper hand. The headgear was a little creepy, if nothing else.

He exhaled, shaking his head before looking up at a nearby shelf. His hand closed around one of the dolls on the bottom shelf. He brought it closer to his face, apparently unaffected by its sliminess. "This one looks like her."

"Looks like who?" she asked. She shifted to try to get a better look, but a cell phone rang from the other side of the doors.

Right. Cell phone. She needed one of those to get home. Besides, the idea that Mia was on the other end of it was a nice one. "Look, I'll get that door open. Just take it easy for a bit," she told the man, looking around for a clue for the door. Just beyond him was a picture of the dolls all lined up in a row. She picked it up and perched in front of the cluster of dolls.

There were two ways this could go, and since she had no bolt from the blue, she'd have to wing it. She started in the opposite order first, from the end of the line to the front. First would be the one in the blue kimono. She reached out for it, and a hand closed over her wrist.

"The other way. The one with the black bow first." Her heart had jumped into her throat, but she knew that the man was right as soon as she realized what he was saying. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she trusted him for some reason, like they'd met before.

She picked up the doll with the black bow. The darkness faded into the same size it had been when she had first come into the room, and the doll disappeared.

More reinforcement that they were right. She picked up the one with the striped kimono, then the dog doll (or she thought it was a dog, at least; it could have been just a really ugly fox), the red flower kimono, the white sleeved kimono, and finished with the red and yellow kimono and the blue kimono.

The darkness faded completely. She tried the door, hesitantly opening it when it became obvious she could. She glanced back towards the man on the floor. He seemed okay, but he hadn't moved past stopping her from picking up the doll. "I'll be right back! Stay here," she said. He could handle himself for a few seconds, right? Just while she grabbed the cell phone. She would be _right__ back._

She closed the door behind her, looking at the room she was in. It looked like someone's attic. There were boxes everywhere and no window. She swept her flashlight upon everything that wasn't pressed up against the walls, wary of a ghost hiding behind something (not that they really needed to hide, but still. Better safe than sorry). When she didn't see anything, she hurried through the room and ran down the stairs.

She'd entered the hallway and had taken a few steps before something dropped from the ceiling in front of her. It rolled towards her, and she realized as it approached that it was another one of the noodle dolls, this time of Sister Bikini. There was a high-pitched child's giggle coming from down the hall, and then it approached closer and closer, more voices joining in until it sounded like an army of children giggling inside of the walls next to her.

And then it suddenly stopped.

She wasn't sure what was more disconcerting—the giggling or that it had ceased so suddenly. She looked around, hoping against hope that the cell phone was somewhere in the hallway, but she didn't see it. It had already stopped ringing, so finding where exactly it was in this house was going to be harder than before.

She went into a room on her right and was relieved when she saw the cell phone on the floor. The room looked like a bedroom, complete with a bed, nightstand with a rotary phone on it, and a few sets of drawers. She leaned down to pick up the phone.

A hand darted out from under the bed and wrapped around her wrist. Her head snapped around to look at her assailant, and she screamed.

Larry stared up at her, much paler and far more ghostlike than the last time she'd seen him. "MAYAAAAAAAAAAAA! HELP MEEEEEEEEE!"

She pulled back instinctively only to find that the force had pulled him out from under the bed, towering over her. His fingers dug into her shoulders.

"PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE! YOU HAVE TO HELP MEEEEE!"

She managed to wriggle out from under him, grabbing the cell phone as she ran out the door. She'd made it to the corner when something grabbed her leg, pulling her downwards. Larry held the limb to his chest for dear life. "PLEASE, MAYA, PLEASE!" he begged.

She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as she shook him off. There was nothing she could do for him now, she reminded herself, managing to free her leg.

She sprinted toward the attic, but the door was locked. Larry trapped her against it, his hands gripping her neck this time. She tried to resist, but his grip was strong and she couldn't break the hold. Gurgling noises came from her mouth as she tried to restore oxygen to her lungs. The world started losing definition as her vision began to fail . . .

He let go.

She slid to the ground, vaguely aware of the sound of a rotary phone ringing. Larry had his hands pressed over his ears, his scream now drowning out the ring. He doubled over, whimpering, "no more, please no." After a minute of this, he disappeared.

Maya sighed in relief. Her head was starting to clear, and she glanced at the cell phone. No text messages, no missed calls. So much for that.

The rotary phone in the bedroom was still ringing. She got to her feet, entered the bedroom, and answered it.

Again, it was Pearl's voice. _"You promised! You promised you wouldn't try to hurt her again! How could you do this? I—I hate you, Mother!"_ There was so much pain in her voice that the last sentence seemed extra venomous, especially from Pearly. Pearl Fey, who didn't possess a hateful bone in her body. Something seemed odd.

The line went dead and Maya put the phone back on the receiver. What had Morgan done to spark Pearl's ire like that? And who had she hurt now? Iris? She couldn't think of anything that her aunt had done to her recently, unless this strange ghost world was her doing, but Maya doubted it was. While Morgan had the power to channel ghosts like most Feys, her powers were weak compared to Maya's or Pearl's. There was no way she could have pulled off something of this magnitude.

In any case, she couldn't stick around much longer. She'd told the man that she'd be right back. He was probably starting to wonder if she'd abandoned him.

The door to the attic was unlocked. "Of course," she muttered bitterly. "Now that I'm not running for my life." She turned, only to realize there was a ghost in the room. He stared at her, but didn't move. She stared back at him. "My noodles . . . My noodles are . . ." His voice trailed off, leaving her to wait with bated breath until he vanished.

His noodles were what? Dolls? Covered with some slimy substance she couldn't identify? He hadn't attacked her, so she quickly went through the door to the doll room before he changed his mind.

The man was gone. He wasn't on the floor anymore, and she knew she hadn't imagined him. But somehow, he was gone. There hadn't been a cell phone in here, unless you counted the one that had been abducted by the disembodied science hand, so he couldn't have teleported. The house had only one hallway. If he'd left the room, she would have seen him.

Where had he gone?

She shone the flashlight over where he'd been sitting. There was a piece of paper, much like the ones she and Edgeworth had exchanged earlier. She picked it up.

* * *

><p><em>Diego Armando — 997-618-252<em>

_Kuromiya Hospital Room #204_

* * *

><p>The only thing she could think of was that he had somehow managed to find a phone and call this number. There didn't seem to be much more she could do here, and she was a bit worried, since he had barely been coherent when she had seen the man last. She flipped open the phone and dialed.<p>

_997-618-252_

She hit send, closing her eyes and trusting that the world around her was about to fade.

* * *

><p>When she opened her eyes again, there was a white light floating in front of her and something vibrating to her left. She clicked on her flashlight in order to see that the vibrating thing was a cell phone. This had happened before, she remembered, when she was in the school. There had been a white light, and she had recorded it to hear the voices. She picked up the phone, walking over to the light and hearing the familiar murmuring. She hit the record button and waited.<p>

It automatically played back, like normal.

_"We need to get her clothing out of the way."_

_"What happened?"_

_"They found her up in the mountains with a stab wound through her abdomen. She's hypothermic too."_

_"BP is dropping!"_

_"Get her to the OR."_

_"Yes, doctor!"_

The recording cut off, leaving Maya very confused. She waved the light around, trying to figure out where she was. She was in an office of sorts, though the pristine tile floor and medical gauze in the corner made her think of a hospital. But that was what that memo had said, right? Kuromiya Hospital Room #204. This didn't seem much like a hospital room though. For one, there was no hospital bed. And where was the weird machine that beeped in time with a person's heart rate?

There was a file sitting on the desk, and she picked it up out of curiosity.

It seemed to be a medical chart, but whose chart was a mystery. The name was unreadable. The rest of the chart, however, had different, fairly legible scribble for a doctor.

* * *

><p><em>Injuries: <em>

_Stomach punctured by sharp force trauma._

_Ribs 6 and 7 broken._

_Left femur shattered._

_Bruising along the left side of the body consistent with blunt force trauma._

_Patient was admitted hypothermic, but body temperature regulated within forty-five minutes._

* * *

><p>Why did this feel so familiar? She closed her eyes, trying to summon up the memory . . .<p>

And then it came.

The images flashed quickly. The dagger that sliced through her abdomen, her eyes as she stared at a Pearl Fey who was entirely too tall and too old to be the Pearly she knew. A Pearl Fey with braids in her hair, a smile smoothed over delicate features. Rubies seemed to be splattered on her robes, though they couldn't be rubies with the way they seemed to turn to liquid at her sleeves, coating graceful fingers in red. The same liquid extended from her torso, a crimson flower blooming in the snow, its dark tendrils still seeping out around the knife.

She gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. That was Hazakura Temple! The training grounds, where her mother had died! But instead of her mother, it had been Maya on the ground and Pearl wielding the knife.

That wasn't how it had happened. Or was it? She racked her brain, trying to remember what had happened. Misty had summoned Dahlia instead, and . . . then what? She tried to recall that night in detail, but it was fuzzy, despite the fact that she'd had nightmares about it for years afterwards.

Which story was real?

Who held the knife?

And had she actually died that night?

She dropped the file back on the desk and exited the room, shaken. She'd known what had happened that night, until this very moment, and she didn't have enough evidence to justify either one of the things she remembered. Her hand pressed against her stomach, but there was no hole where the dagger had been, nothing to prove that she had been physically affected either way.

It didn't matter, she decided, steeling her nerves. None of that mattered. All she needed to do was to get back to Pearly.

The door led out to the hallway, fluorescent lights built into the ceiling and the same sterile tile as the room she'd just come out of. Each room had a small placard attached to the wall. That one said "Consultation Room".

She wandered down the hallway until it came to a T, not seeing anything of interest. She turned to wander the other way before freezing. Someone was here, she could feel it with her sixth sense. She looked back towards the hallway and was blinded momentarily by a flash of white light, two eyes seeming to stare at her in the moment of sensory deprivation. She blinked, and in front of her was a ghost. She was dressed in nurse's scrubs, holding a clipboard. Her hair swept down from her cap, hiding one of her eyes. The desolate look on her face was one Maya recognized immediately.

Since when was Adrian Andrews a nurse?

Adrian stared at her with sad eyes before turning and taking a few steps back down the hallway. She glanced over her shoulder back at Maya and paused.

Did she want to be followed?

Maya walked towards her slowly and Adrian led her past the Consultation Room to a staircase before proceeding up it. They went up only one flight of stairs before Adrian walked down the hall again. This floor seemed to be identical to the one below it, with its spotless tile and dead fluorescent lights. They had gone past only a few rooms when Adrian suddenly vanished.

She was on her own again.

_Yip yip yip yip yip. Yip yip._

Or maybe not. The barking was faint, but she could hear it clearly. She walked farther down the hall, hearing it come most strongly from Room 202. She entered to find Missile barking at what looked like the bottom half of a ghost penguin pacing behind a curtain.

"Missile?"

The dog gasped (or something close to it; it might have been a snort) before bounding over to her happily. "Miss Burgers! HELLO!" He pawed at her knees and she knelt down to smother him with affection, petting every inch of him she could reach. He slobbered all over her in his race to lick her face thoroughly, and by the time they stopped rolling around, she felt like she needed a shower to clean off the dog saliva that was on her skin and robes.

"What are you doing here?"

"I found a thing!" he said, turning again to the curtain and starting to bark at it again. The ghost penguin continued to shuffle around at the same speed.

Could she be attacked by a ghost penguin? What would that even look like? Deciding she didn't really want to know, she picked Missile up, holding tight when he squirmed and whined, and exited the room. "Where should we go?" she asked the dog.

He squirmed in her arms. "Back to the thing," he whined, and she sighed.

"Not happening." She pulled out the slip of paper with the hospital's phone number again. _Diego Armando. Kuromiya Hospital Room #204._ She was only a few rooms away.

Room 204 looked just like Room 202 with the exception of the penguin. A curtain was drawn around one of the beds, but the other one was exposed. The cell phone vibrated as she neared the open bed, so she set Missile down and recorded the muttering that she could hear.

_"I—Is he any better?"_ The voice was so familiar, but Maya couldn't quite place it.

_"Not that I can tell." _This one Maya knew immediately. She'd spoken with her sister enough to recognize her voice over the phone. Just the five words made her ache for Mia.

_"I'm sorry."_

_"For what?" _Mia sounded confused.

_"I . . . I can't say." _There was a few moments of awkward silence before the mystery voice spoke again, soft and hesitant. _"He's lucky to have someone like you around."_

_"I want to be here when he wakes up." _Mia's voice cracked. _"I just want him to be okay, you know?"_

_"Of course. Is there anything I can do?"_

_"Probably not. But thank you."_

_"I'll just sit here with you then. You look like you could use the company."_

She could hear Mia chuckle. _"Thanks, Iris."_

Iris. Dahlia's sister. She hadn't known that Mia had known her cousin. But why had Mia been in the hospital, right in this room?

Who was Diego Armando, and why was she so determined to be there when he woke up?

In the bed, there was a piece of paper much like the one the man had left behind. She picked it up, her fingers trembling.

* * *

><p><em>Mia Fey — 997-082-196<em>

* * *

><p>She hadn't really needed the number, to tell the truth; she still had Mia's cell phone number memorized, even though the number had now likely been assigned to someone else. But what was Mia's cell phone number doing here in a hospital bed? She opened her cell phone and dialed her sister's number.<p>

_997-082-196_

When she opened her eyes again, she was on the floor, her hand still clutching her flashlight. Missile was gone, probably still back at the hospital, though she wasn't sure how he'd gotten there in the first place. She turned the flashlight on, getting up and looking around. It looked like someone's living room. There was a cell phone on the coffee table that she picked up, but beyond that, it was boring. The couch was comfortable though, and she sat down on it, trying to decide what to do.

Was there a point to continuing this? She wasn't getting anywhere. She crossed her arms over her chest, and leaned back, staring at the ceiling. She had no idea how they'd even gotten here in the first place, which made getting out next to impossible. Larry was gone; there was no question about that. Edgeworth's status was in question, and she had to admit that it was likely she was the only one left alive, something she had to attribute to her spirit medium training. She'd been able to bypass some trials that might have gotten her stuck, or worse, ambushed by ghosts. Was there a point to getting out at this point? Everyone she knew and cared about was probably here by now.

Well, no, that wasn't true. She hadn't seen Trucy, Franziska, or Pearl.

The thought of her cousin made her get back on her feet again.

The ceiling groaned, and she looked up. There were footsteps. Creaking above her, wooden boards groaning as weight was placed on them.

Edgeworth? Missile? Or someone else entirely? Did ghosts have footfalls? She tried to think about Larry, only to realize that her heartbeat had been beating so loudly in her ears by that point that she didn't have a clue.

She exited the room and looked around. She was in a large hallway. She turned right, walking past the kitchen with the awesome purple fridge to round the corner. There was something familiar about this house, and she realized it as soon as she saw the rotary phone and hand-painted fan at the end of the hallway. This was Mia's house. It had to have been. Maya remembered helping her move, though it had been a long, arduous process. Still, no one else would have kept a fan messily painted by her seven-year-old sister other than Mia.

"YOU'RE NOT MY EDGEYPOO!"

Maya screamed at the noise suddenly in her ear, screaming again when she saw the old hag in a red dress in front of her. She wasn't transparent somehow, but the pallor of her skin screamed "dead lady." It took Maya a minute to realize she was still talking.

"HOWDAREHERUNAWAYFROMMEWHENIWASYOUNGERBOYSUSEDTOBEALLOVERMEANDIT'SSOMETHINGCALLEDMANNERSHOWDAREYOUNOTBEMYEDGEYPOOWHODOYOUTHINKYOUAREIBETYOU'REONEOFTHOSEGIRLSWHOTHROWSTHEMSELVESATHIMNOTTHATYOUHAVEANYTHINGGOINGFORYOUWHIPPERSNAPPERSTHESEDAYSNEVERKNOWINGWHATTHEYHAVEDRESSINGLIKETHEY'REHOMELESSYOU'RENOTWORTHMYTIMEI'LLFINDMYEDGEYPOO! EDGEYPOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

With that final battle cry, the windbag disappeared through the floor, leaving Maya to stare at the wall in shock. Didn't the old woman ever have to breathe? What had she been saying anyways? It had all been too fast for comprehension, not that Maya really wanted to understand.

Still, she hadn't been attacked, so she guessed something went right there.

She went back to the kitchen. There was a box of matches on the counter. Could you light a ghost on fire? She imagined the old hag running, lit like a torch, and the image made her giggle. She grabbed them, determined to try it next time she saw something.

There was nothing more on this side of the hallway, so she passed the door to the living room and came to the front door. Nothing over there but a table with yet another rotary phone on it. The stairs were across from it, and she proceeded upstairs. She was in a more cramped hallway now, with three sliding doors like the doll room. She brandished her flashlight like a sword, in case it was a ghost she'd heard walking around up here.

She grasped the side of one of the doors, taking a deep breath, and—

The doorbell rang.

Maya whipped around, shining her light down the stairway. There was no one there (obviously, since the door hadn't been open). Of course, that was when the problems started. The light began to dim and then flicker. "Oh no no no no NO!" she shouted, hitting the body of the flashlight in the hope that the batteries were just coming loose or something. It continued to flicker.

And then it went dead.

Well, now it was dark.

She'd picked up matches in the kitchen, but she hadn't seen anything she could light in there. She turned back around, resolved to find something in a nearby room, when she realized there was a light emanating from one of the doors.

She approached the room hesitantly, afraid that there was a ghost behind it like there had been the first time. Her sixth sense prickled. She slid the door open, though it would only open a crack.

There was a girl in a kimono and apron kneeling on the floor, praying to the altar set up in front of her. Her head bowed, and her form wavered ethereally before she disappeared. What _didn't_ fade away, however, was the candle she could barely see on the altar. She had matches. Matches + candle = light, right? If she could get in there, she could find a temporary light source until she found new batteries.

She rattled the door harder, trying to get it to open wider than the inch it had, but it wouldn't budge. Dang it, she needed to get in there!

She peered through the opening again, looking around the room. There was a door on the right. She looked in the hallway to her right. There was a door over there. She put two and two together, realizing that the two rooms likely connected through the door inside. She went over to the door on her right, throwing it open in case it put up resistance. It hadn't, and it made a loud crashing noise as it connected with the wall.

The room looked a bit like a spare room, but without light, she couldn't see anything in detail. She ignored the rest of it, opening the door to the altar room and making a beeline for the candle.

Something crashed down to the floor behind her as she entered, but she ignored it, instead picking up the potential light source and felt for the wick. It was there, and it felt fairly fresh. She took the matches from her pocket, lighting one after a few tries (thank goodness that they didn't have a lighter in Kurain Village; she'd had plenty of practice at lighting candles). She transferred the flame to the candle wick expertly, relieved when it began to burn on its own.

Hopefully it would last until she could find more batteries for the flashlight.

She turned to go back to the previous room when something caught her eye. There was a picture on the floor, the frame cracked (that must have been what had fallen, she supposed). The picture inside was of her older sister and a man who looked very familiar . . .

Where did she know him from . . . ?

She gasped. The man in the doll room! The one who had disappeared! Sure, in the picture he was wearing a red shirt instead of a green one, his hair was brown instead of white, and there was no weird visor on his face, but it had to be him!

There was no question that he and her sister had been close. He was seated in an office chair, Mia's arms thrown around him. Her cheek was pressed to his, a beatific smile on her face, a warm smile on his.

She felt herself tearing up suddenly, wiping her eyes with her free hand before picking the picture up. It had been more than ten years since she'd seen Mia last, and she missed her sister dearly, no matter how often she was channeled.

It hadn't escaped her notice that she was in the world of the dead and she hadn't seen the one person she wanted to see.

She extracted the picture from the frame, carefully avoiding the broken glass. She put it in her pocket, surprised when she saw a piece of paper behind the picture. She unfolded it and began to read.

* * *

><p><em>Dear Diego,<em>

_I feel a bit silly, writing a letter to you that you'll never read. I just need to get my thoughts out, and Iris suggested writing a letter, so . . . _

_I'm so sorry. Maybe if I'd been a better lawyer, you wouldn't be in that hospital bed right now. You'd be sitting here next to me, and I wouldn't be writing this letter at all. But I couldn't put her away, and you had to pay the price for my incompetence. I'll never let myself forget that. _

_But don't worry. I got her. The legal system has finally pulled through for us._

_I have a new assistant. He's fresh out of law school, just like I was when we met. His first case was awkward, and it was a close call (I think I was waiting for a guilty verdict during the whole first half), but he managed a not guilty. I'd like to say he won't need me soon, but, well, he still needs a lot of help. I haven't told him about you yet. Visiting you is a special time for me; I already share it with Iris, and that's more than enough._

_Iris. I guess you never met her. She's been really helpful all this time. She reminds me so much of Pearly; she's so sweet. Of course I hope that she's not the only one there when you wake up. Don't want you waking up from your coma only to have a heart attack._

_Please wake up. I still need you._

_I miss you._

_Love,_

_Mia_

* * *

><p>Maya wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, holding the letter to her chest. If Mia could suffer through whatever had happened to this Diego guy, Maya could make it out of here alive. Her resolve renewed, she slipped the letter into the pocket of her robes and went into the room she'd ignored earlier. If she was going to get out of here, she needed to be thorough in her investigation.<p>

She resumed her search, moving to the closet. There were blankets for the futon wedged inside, and a tiny wooden piece on the floor that looked so familiar . . .

Something rang, and Maya checked the cell phone before realizing it had to be the rotary phone next to the front door. Every time she had picked up a phone other than the cell, Pearly had been on the other line, and Maya hoped that this time was no exception. She raced out of the room, the wooden piece from the closet still clutched in her hand, and threw herself downstairs. Her hand landed on the receiver, and she picked up the phone. "Hello?"

She could hear sniffling on the other line. _"It's all my fault. All of it. Why did she have to . . . why?!" _The final word had been twisted with grief and anger, enough to make Maya press a hand to her mouth in sympathy. What had happened to Pearl? The line went dead.

A chill suddenly went up her spine, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. She turned towards the door, the only direction she couldn't see out of the corner of her eye, only to be met with the sight of Dahlia, one hand poised on her chest. Her form wavered, so ethereal in being that even keeping her shape seemed to be difficult.

"It's not working," she was saying, though it sounded like it was coming from a tin can. "I can't—" This sounded stronger. Maya took a step toward her cousin, and Dahlia's gaze snapped to hers, recognition blooming instantly. "Maya! Maya, call me—" Her voice faded again, mouth continuing to move as her body faded completely, and the rest of the sentence was lost.

"D—Dahlia?" she stuttered, almost hoping that she would come back. Company seemed to be hard to come by in this place.

Something crashed from upstairs, and she turned to see a short, squat ghost man rolling down the staircase. He stopped at her feet, pausing, before he moved like lightning, grabbing something in her pocket and darting down the hallway before she could really react. "Hey!" she shouted, running after him, but he was already gone.

What had he taken? She rifled through her pockets, finding everything except for Mia's letter. She sighed, hoping that hadn't been important for her to have later. It wasn't like she was going to be able to get it back from him anyways.

But now what? She had a wooden piece that she recognized as coming from a puzzle box her mother had given Mia back when they were children, but no idea as to where the box actually was. She'd pretty thoroughly searched upstairs; there wasn't going to be much more she could find up there. She was at a bit of a standstill.

"Have to . . . clean . . . the bathroom."

"Huh?" Maya asked, looking around.

"Have to . . . or Mr. Wright will be . . ." The voice was slow and the person seemed to be gasping for air, but Maya had a feeling she knew who it was. There was a tiny bathroom off to her right, and she stepped inside, only to be greeted by a ghost-Apollo scrubbing at the toilet.

"Apollo?" she asked, bending down to his level.

He turned, and she was disconcerted by the normally warm brown eyes that were now glassy and white. "Maya . . ." He said her name so quietly she might have imagined it. "You're . . . here . . . again."

"Again?" she asked, her arms wrapping around her legs.

"You . . . shouldn't be here." He turned back to his task, only to think twice about it, turning back around to look at her.

"I don't know how to get out. I'm trying, I swear!"

He nodded, and she suddenly realized that his "antennae", as Trucy liked to call them, weren't bowed just because of his mood, but because they were dripping with water. "It's . . . hard to get out . . . of here."

"What happened to you?"

"Some woman . . . I . . . I couldn't breathe. Too much . . . water." He shivered, and Maya huddled backwards instinctively. "Don't go in . . . the bathtub."

Her gaze flickered over to the dark tub. "Apollo, I . . ."

"Just get out of here . . . You have to save her."

"Save who?"

But his eyes, still blank and glassy, seemed to become dead. His head cocked to the side, and suddenly, he shuddered again and vanished.

"Apollo?" she asked, looking around for the young defense attorney hurriedly. "Apollo!" No, he couldn't be gone. She knew him, she'd been to some of his trials, he'd cooked burgers for her . . . He might have been able to help her escape from this place.

She exited the bathroom, chills going down her spine as she looked around in the hopes she'd see him. No luck. She turned to the part of the hallway she hadn't investigated yet, running down it and stopping at the end. The door on her left was partially open, and she could see movement under a blanket on the floor. She pushed it open further and stopped short.

Mia Fey was curled up on the floor, covered by a blanket and clutching a pillow, her face relaxed in peaceful slumber. She could see her breathe, the blanket covering her sister moving with the expansion and contraction of her lungs.

"Mia?" she asked, taking a few steps forward. Mia's eyes opened, and she gave a beatific smile before starting to fade. "W—Wait!"

"Don't give up yet, Maya," she could hear, the whispered words echoing around the now-empty room. Maya's breath caught, and she stumbled towards where Mia had been reclined, realizing that there was a very familiar puzzle box on the pillow. Once upon a very long time ago, Mia had been obsessed with puzzle boxes, and her favorite, which their mother had given her for Mia's tenth birthday, featured a picture of a black cat.

The wooden piece from the closet was still in her hand, and she knew from memory that the piece would complete the bottom-right corner. Once she finished it, the box would open up.

Mia had left her a clue. Maya could have cried in relief.

She sat down on the futon and solved the puzzle by sliding the pieces to the correct position. She pressed the final piece into the corner, and the box opened with a click. She slid the top off, revealing a piece of paper tucked inside. She opened the note and began to read.

* * *

><p><em>Miss Fey,<em>

_I wanted to thank you for keeping Mr. Armando company. I really do believe you're helping him, and I think he can hear what you're saying, even if he can't say anything back. I know this has all been hard on you. That being said, I'm a bit worried; you've been looking a bit pale lately, and you don't look like you've been feeling well. I'd like to do a consultation and make sure that you're well._

_Here's my personal cell phone number: 997-116-286 Feel free to call me at any time to set something up. In the meantime, make sure to sleep enough hours a night and eat a balanced diet. _

_Wishing you the best,_

_Adrian Andrews_

* * *

><p>Adrian had reached out to Mia? Adrian had <em>known<em> Mia? Since when? Then again, she was offering medical assistance again, and Maya couldn't ever remember hearing Adrian talk about being a nurse.

First Pearly, now Adrian? Something strange was going on here, and Maya had the feeling that she wasn't going to get out until she figured it all out.

* * *

><p><strong>AN ::**

**Melody Canta ::**

**Wasn't this chapter riveting? Haha, I think my favorite part is the old windbag. She's actually a lot more fun to write than I thought she would be, though rambling is kind of hard to write, in my opinion.**

**Hopefully everyone's still enjoying this.**

**Quick note; I'm going to be out of the country for the next ten days without internet access, so there's going to be a tiny delay in the next chapter. I'll try to beta as soon as I get home though so that I can post up the next chapter ASAP.**

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**Yeah, the most excitement in this chapter was Larry (again) and Oldbag. But at least it hints at how things have changed, right? Unfortunately the next chapter is a re-write as well, but it's my turn! Time for the return of the first round survivor: Godot! The plot will be basically the same; see Maya, go to hospital, follow Mia. . . BUT! There's a ghost you haven't seen yet and you'll also get what will likely be the only time our furry friends ever actually see each other. I'll keep it as fresh as I can.**

**Until then, thanks for still putting up with us!**


	14. The Turnabout Return

****A/N :: This is yet another rewritten chapter, but the material has changed significantly. The plot, however, is relatively similar and doesn't really change what will happen to Maya and the others. It just hints at what is yet to come.****

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Six :: The Turnabout Return<strong>

Darkness.

Endless Darkness.

Darker than the blackest cup of coffee.

And then it wasn't. Then it was a weird swirl of lights, colors, and even some strange sounds.

Godot awoke confused. "What?" He was so used to his cot that he recognized the strange feel of a tatami mat immediately. He looked around his surroundings in confusion. "Where am I?" There were shelves all around him, dripping with soggy noodles. Some of these noodles had been thrown together to make strange little . . . people.

Somehow, he had managed to sweep right over the girl who was occupying the room with him, and when she crouched down in front of him to say hello, he jumped and looked right at her. The girl wore a familiar purple kimono and had her hair up in an old fashioned Japanese style. She looked like someone he knew. Someone that he couldn't quite remember. But then again, the more that he thought about it, the more the room felt familiar as well. "Who are you?" he finally asked. "Where are we?"

"I don't really know where we are. Sorry." She shrank back timidly and he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. His visor wasn't exactly common thing and, in such an abnormal place, it might logically be cause for alarm.

He sighed and shook his head out of quiet frustration with his own appearance. As he looked away, though, a particular doll caught his attention. The doll wore a kimono that looked similar to the one that the girl had on, but her black hair was braided in a ring around the crown of her head. She looked to him like Dahlia.

No. Not Dahlia.

"This one looks like her."

"Looks like who?" the girl asked.

He opened his mouth to say a different name, but none came to mind.

A phone rang somewhere in the distance and the girl seemed distracted by it. "Look, I'll get that door open. Just take it easy for a bit," the girl assured him. He thought it was a little strange, though. Why would it be difficult to open a door? He studied the door and saw that there were a few non-noodle dolls sitting around a strange dark mass. It should have been frightening, but it really didn't surprise him. The girl shuffled back over to the dolls after retrieving a picture, ready to take on the puzzle.

Somehow, he knew that the dolls had to be removed in the correct order, according to the picture, to open the door. So he focused on it and noticed her reaching for the doll at the far right side of the photo.

"The other way," he said quickly, not wanting the dark essence to become any larger than it already was. "The one with the black bow first."

Wait. How could he possibly know that?

He mulled over the odd occurrence, but the girl followed his instructions without a second thought and both the dark mass and the dolls all vanished, allowing her to open the door with ease.

"I'll be right back! Stay here," she told him before running out and closing the door behind her.

As he found himself alone, he suddenly felt panicked. It was like he was forgetting something important. He had to tell that girl something. He had to help her somehow. "I have to go after her," he mumbled to himself, unsure as to why he had hesitated earlier. He stood up and tried the door but it wouldn't budge. "No! Please, I have to help her!" He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't shake the feeling that, if he didn't do something, something horrible would happen.

"PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE! YOU HAVE TO HELP MEEEEE!"

The sharp cry definitely didn't belong to the girl, but it worried Godot all the more. He slammed his shoulder against the doors, desperately trying to break through, and only gave up when he heard a phone ringing from behind him this time. It sounded like it was coming from under a shelf. Maybe he could use it to get a hold of the other phone somehow. He retrieved it and flipped it open to see the familiar image of a black cat in the city.

"Kitten. . ." He looked back at the sliding doors where the girl had gone and contemplated things. He knew her, but he couldn't recall how. He remembered the situation, but couldn't figure out why, and the painting of the cat on the phone pulled at something in his chest, but he wasn't sure what.

Suddenly, the sliding doors on the opposite side of the room slid open and a blinding light flooded the space. A soft voice beckoned him, begging him to step in. Something in him wanted to let go of everything and head right into the warmth, but he still couldn't shake the ominous feeling that came from the other doors.

_"I need your help. . ."_ the voice pleaded. It clearly belonged to a woman, and she sounded somewhat distressed as well.

Godot sucked in a breath, tucked the phone away in his pocket, and walked into the light.

The doors seemed to lead outside into a pale forest. Just a little ways ahead stood a familiar woman in formal business attire. She glanced over her shoulder, right at him, but he couldn't make out her face. As he started after her, she walked away from him. "Wait!" Every step he took was labored, not because it was difficult to move, but because it was difficult to stay tethered to the ground. Keeping up with the woman was all but impossible.

Meanwhile, pale wisps drifted all around him, muttering things that he could almost make out. The whole place seemed calm and peaceful, but the thoughts of worry still plagued his mind.

Godot managed to refocus on the woman only to see her walking into a blinding light. He continued to go after her and the light consumed him briefly only to let him out at the entrance of a hospital with his lovely guide nowhere to be seen.

He decided to walk over to the counter to take a moment and consider things, but as he drew closer, he heard a soft but shrill sound that brought his attention to the empty waiting room chairs. No . . . wait, not empty. . . Sitting alone in one seat was a girl with her head down. She looked sad. Godot had mixed feelings of sympathy and loathing towards her that he had trouble keeping apart. She looked frail and even beautiful. Her hair was done in two perfectly symmetrical braids that started from the center of her forehead and went along at a V-shaped angle down just past her shoulders. It was like a soft halo . . . or were they horns?

Then it hit him. She looked just like the doll he had picked up earlier. But the whole hospital, girl included, seemed to be completely devoid of color.

Was she Dahlia?

Was she someone else?

He approached her, hoping to figure out just who she was, but she just faded away when he got close and the sound disappeared with her.

With all of the strange noises gone, Godot became very aware of how quiet things were. It was unnerving to be in a hospital that was more silent than the grave. He turned the corner slowly and saw that the hospital stretched out into a long hallway. He tried hard to see what was at the end of it only to hear faded sirens as a nurse and doctor wheeled a gurney through. Godot just barely noticed the purple kimono sleeve hanging off the side of the gurney as it drew closer, then he saw who he assumed was the girl from the waiting room seat step out of the way and caught a glimpse of the menacing smile on her face before they all vanished. Godot felt a chill. She had to be Dahlia.

Figuring that he had to find a clue about his whereabouts somewhere, he looked at the first room in the hall. Something about it made him nervous, like he just knew that something bad would happen in there. He chose to ignore it and moved on. Perhaps it would be better if he just looked for the beautiful woman who had led him there.

He continued down the hall until he came upon a stairwell and figured that there was nowhere else to go but up. Unfortunately, climbing stairs was even harder than just walking; each step felt like it would send him up to the ceiling if he wasn't careful.

When he finally reached the second floor, he was greeted by the sound that accompanied the woman and saw her down the hall a little ways, waiting for him. She turned away when he walked towards her and disappeared through a door. He went after her and walked into the room without hesitation.

That's when he realized that the eerie, abandoned hospital was more than just familiar. It was Kuromiya hospital: the place where he had been taken after Dahlia had poisoned him. In fact, now he was looking at his old hospital room. It didn't look as old as the rest of the hospital, and there were even people inside. He—or rather, the Diego Armando who had slipped into a coma—was lying in the hospital bed and two women sat in the room near him. One of the women was the one whom he had been following, the other looked just like Dahlia. But why would Dahlia be there in his room?

Godot studied the woman whom he'd been following closely, finally able to see her features better, and his chest tightened. He knew her. Her name was there, he just couldn't grasp it. Why could he remember Dahlia, but not this woman who clearly cared for him?

The girls seemed to talk about something, but all he could hear was some faint muttering. He wanted to hear them, but there was nothing that he could do. Eventually the woman intertwined her fingers with his younger self and he could almost feel her warmth in his own hand. She had to be important to him. How could he not remember her?

Almost as suddenly as they appeared, the people vanished into the nothingness that the hospital was so full of. "Why can't I remember you?" he wondered aloud as he exited. He'd gone only steps before he heard the shrill sound yet again. He looked just in time to see the faceless version of the woman go into the stairwell. He didn't need to ask where she was going. Something in him just knew that it was up.

So, he went up to the third floor, but as soon as he reached the new hall, the woman was already gone. "Well, that's just great." Figuring that it was as good a place as any to start, he went towards the first room in the hall. As soon as he reached for the doorknob, yellow cat eyes flashed across his vision and he stumbled backwards.

"What the hell was that?" he yelled as he tried to get his bearings.

"Down here, Cyclops." Godot looked towards the foot of the door and saw a small black cat with what must have been a red bandanna, much like the one in the picture on the phone that he had picked up earlier. "Hey. The lady definitely didn't want you going into the director's office."

A talking cat. This should have sparked some sort of reaction in Godot, but for some inexplicable reason, it really didn't surprise him. Instead, he looked at the placard by the door and scoffed. "This is the operating room."

The cat stared at him blankly for a moment before yelling, "I. CAN'T. READ! When will you people figure that out?"

"You people? Have you seen the girl in the purple kimono?" Godot wondered.

The cat pawed at its ear and looked up at him with a neutral expression. "Purple? Yeah, I've run into her once or twice. Not overly bright, is she?"

Godot couldn't really say, but the cat didn't seem to know her name either, so there wasn't much improvement on his memory of her. Still, he had no reason to listen to the cat. For all he knew it was just trying to steer him the wrong way. So he opened the door and was baffled to see a little Pomeranian chasing its tail on the other side. "Well this is different."

"Missile, you brilliant little mongrel! I've been wondering if I'd ever see you here!" Go figure, the cat knew the dog.

The little dog looked up and barked rapidly as it chased the cat up onto the counter. "Sissel! Hi there! I've missed you!"

The cat playfully pawed at the dog's nose every time that it hopped up close and, actually laughed. "So, do you have any idea why the lady didn't want him in the operating room?"

"What's an operating room?"

This creature was supposed to be _brilliant_?

This whole furry conversation was going nowhere and starting to try Godot's patience. He stepped past the critters and opened the door to the surgical surgery room. The place was just as old and empty as the rest of the hospital, but he didn't have much of an idea on where to go next, so he decided to step inside to investigate.

"Oh! The lady said not to go in there!" the dog barked out, but it was seconds too late. The door slammed shut and Godot spun on his feet to look back at it.

The words: '_THIS IS THE END,_' were scratched into the door.

"No, it's not!" He pulled on the handle but the door wouldn't budge. "Hey! You guys still over there? Get me out of here!" He could hear the dog yipping non-stop on the other side.

He could barely hear the cat over the barking. "There's a, uh, scary presence in there with you. We'll be cheering you on from over here, okay?"

"What? What 'scary' presence?" Before the cat could answer, a vice-like hand grabbed Godot by the shoulder and forced him to turn and look directly at the face of a ghostly woman in a skirt and suit with a side ponytail. She shook him violently, her sharp nails cutting deep into his shoulders, and laughed maniacally, right in his face. He fought her with all his might until he was finally able to pry her off of him. She looked extremely upset that he'd gotten away from her, and she continued to scowl as she disappeared.

Godot's heart was racing and he had a hard time catching his breath. He wasn't as young as he used to be, and that was becoming increasingly apparent. He braced himself against the operating table. He'd probably have a heart attack soon. But, of course, the woman wasn't done with him yet. She reappeared quite suddenly and took hold of his arm.

"Oh no."

The woman continued to laugh as she hurled the man over her shoulder and dropped him flat on the ground. "Augh!" Godot was suddenly becoming very worried about his aged body. Not only was his heart pumping blood so fast that his lungs couldn't keep up, but now he was worried that his spine could be messed up. The woman vanished again and he struggled to even move himself. As soon as he sat up, she reappeared over him and put her hands around his throat.

"HELP HER!" the woman cried out between giggles. "HAVE TO HELP HER!"

Godot tried to push her away, but his strength was fading fast. It seemed like the end as his vision faded, but just when he thought that he couldn't take any more, she was gone again and his head dropped, hitting against the floor.

Everything went dark.

A single cliche thought crossed his mind: a_m I dead?_

He tried to move his arms and could feel them sliding around on the floor, so it didn't take him long to figure out what had happened. He sat up and switched his visor back on. Definition returned to the world, and the violent woman was nowhere to be seen. He slowly made his way back onto his feet and tried the door again. This time it opened with ease and both the cat and dog were waiting anxiously on the other side. "Don't go in there, huh?" he asked rhetorically.

The dog whimpered and the cat cleared its throat. "I warned you," it mumbled. "But I don't think you want to hear that right now."

"You think?" This had to be the first time he had ever considered resorting to animal abuse. "You know what? I'll get through this without your help." Both animals looked down guiltily and stayed quiet as he opened the door back out to the hallway. He took a look back at the apologetic little fur-balls before he heard the soft sound that accompanied the beautiful woman. She was waiting for him just a few doors down. "Where were you five minutes ago?" he mumbled as he popped his back.

As usual, the woman walked through the door and left him on his own to check it out. He knew to trust her judgement over his or any talking animals that he might encounter, so he didn't even hesitate to follow her into the cafeteria.

The room was different. Like the treatment room, he saw his old self. This time, however, the young Godot was up and moving. This had to be before the coma. So many years had passed since he had been truly alive that he almost couldn't recognize himself. Sitting next to his younger self was the beautiful woman. She looked much healthier too, but that wasn't hard to do since, the last time he saw her face in detail, it was plagued by signs of crying and fatigue. They seemed to be arguing about something. The younger Godot looked unconcerned, but the woman looked frustrated. "Come on, man," Godot whispered. "Don't make a girl like that angry." If only he could remember who she was.

Suddenly, Godot noticed Dahlia walking by the other side of the table. She paused for just a moment and turned her head towards him—not the younger him, but _him._ She looked like the devil; her dark eyes glared daggers into him and her mouth twisted up into a grin that seemed to cut across her whole face. He wanted to warn the young Godot to look over at her, but it was like she had stolen his voice from him. When the his younger self _did_ turn, Dahlia disappeared without a trace. He went on to pick up his coffee and downed the whole thing without a clue as to what he had done. Godot ended up watching as he clenched his chest and pushed the woman away. The chair fell and Godot finally felt the strength to move again.

The woman started to scream something over him, but her voice wasn't reaching him. Either of them.

Godot's heart was racing again. He knew that he couldn't stay there any longer. Reliving his own tragedy was doing a number on his mental state. "I have to get out of here," he rasped. "I can't be here." He turned and put his hand on the doorknob, ready to leave the whole horrific scene behind.

"DIEGO!"

His heart stopped. He knew that voice. How could he have possibly forgotten that voice? He looked back and saw the woman cradling his head in her lap and crying. His heart ached for her. He could feel the tears welling up under his visor, but he knew better.

"The only time a lawyer can cry is when it's all over," he murmured, unable to look away.

He waited for the scene to play out and saw something that he didn't expect. Dahlia came running into the scene from the far part of the room and comforted the woman.

Only, it wasn't Dahlia. He knew that now. "Iris."

After he said her name, the whole scene faded and he was left in a deserted cafeteria. He slowly went back out to the hallway and heard a phone ringing at the far end of the hallway. He knew that he had to answer it. He couldn't explain why, but it felt like everything depended on whether or not he answered it. He followed the sound to the nurse's station at the far end of the hall and found an old office phone ringing. He took it off the receiver before it could go to the answering machine and slowly brought it to his ear.

"Godot! It's Iris. It'll be okay this time. I promise."

CLICK.

The phone fell from his hand as memories hit him like a wave against a cliff. The noodles, the girl, the dolls, the light forest, the cat, and even the ghostly hospital. He knew what to do next.

He ran back down to the second floor, completely ignoring the strange gravity problem that had been bothering him the whole time that he was there. He flew down the stairs and went straight back to Room 204 where he threw the door open.

The room looked different again. This time it looked clean and fresh, just like he had left it after waking from his coma. Sitting on the bed where he once slept was something that hadn't been there before. He picked it up and found that it was a picture of him and and the woman, back when she first joined his law firm. They both looked so happy. "Kitten. . ."

Godot pulled out the cell phone he had found at the noodle house and dialed her old number without even thinking about it. It rang twice before, to his surprise, someone actually picked up.

"_Diego. . ._"

There was no mistaking it. Mia.

"_You shouldn't have come back. . . But I'm glad you did. . ._"

Hearing her voice made his heart sink and he could feel tears welling up beneath his visor again.

"Mia, I came back for her," he said in a shaky voice. "But I wanted to see you. I wanted to speak to you."

"_I know. . . Sorry for all the trouble. . ._" she went on. Her gentle voice enveloping him in a soft embrace.

Godot smiled and light filled the room. He could feel her warmth all around him and he knew that this would be his last chance to tell her.

"I love you, Kitten."

There was a brief pause on the other line before he heard the sweetest words in all the world.

"_I love you too, Diego. . . Thank you. . ._"

Tears finally spilled over and leaked out of his visor. He smiled and let the light take him in.

For just a moment, he could feel her arms around him.

And the world faded into that gentle light.

* * *

><p><strong>AN::**

**Shikola Krasno::**

**And thus ends my one and only repeat chapter (sorry Melody!). I must say, repeating Godot's story wasn't much of a drag. Of course I don't describe the actual foot dragging that seems to go on during that whole part of the game. I just loved finally giving him the closure that he deserved with Mia. Unfortunately for him, his actions during this chapter won't have much hold on whether or not things will end well. It just hints at the key player who wasn't really a part of the first go around (by the off chance that you can't guess, I won't say any names). I truly wish that Godot could have had a happier ending in his game, so at least this way I've given myself some solace.**

**Oh! But there was one new ghost introduced this time around! It's a little hard to make her more familiar when he never met her, but she will return! In case you didn't figure it out, who's the girl that Apollo met when she threw a police officer at him? Athena! In fact, she's taking the place of the crazy nurse lady, Nurse Hina, so we've been calling her: Nurse Thena. Much as I love her spunky attitude, she was one tough chick. So making her an insane ghost known for laughing in your face led to making her the most violent ghost encounter yet! I'm only sorry that Godot, the oldest of our protagonists, had to suffer through her first.**

**And I also got to prove just how unhelpful Sissel and Missile are whenever they're needed most. Godot was just the only one to openly acknowledge that (though Edgy often wonders). And Sissel thinks that Missile is brilliant because, well, let's just say that the bundle of joy is a big part of Ghost Trick (definitely recommend that one).**

**Anywho, up next is another Edgy chapter! Hope you're not too tired of our repeat chapters. Edgy is all new so enjoy!  
><strong>

**Melody Canta ::**

**I always think about how much I love these chapters, and then I remember playing this part of the game . . . and spending a full minute getting up the stairs. This was my least favorite chapter to play and probably my favorite to read. I love this rewrite. Possibly my favorite thing might be having Sissel and Missile in the same scene, but . . . hey. Shikola knows I'm biased. **

**Ah, Nurse Thena. Nurse Hina is truly a frightening lady, and I'm a bit disappointed I never got to write an Athena encounter. Poor Godot though. I don't envy him, having to face her. **

**The delay in this chapter is my fault; we'll try to get these chapters up pretty quick. I'm preparing to move overseas in two weeks, so I'll do my best to get things done quickly and efficiently as possible!**

**We're getting nearer to the end!**


	15. The Connection

**Chapter Seven :: The Connection**

Edgeworth woke up on the floor of a dark office room. Transporting so much had made him indifferent to the whole other worldly experience. He didn't even care that he ended up on the floor anymore. His mind was otherwise occupied. It was time to go through his transport routine.

First: find a cell phone.

Second: search for Phoenix's notes and other various clues.

Third: wake up.

The third step had yet to happen, so he was left with the usual.

He checked around the room but there wasn't any phone out in the open, so he started checking cupboards and drawers around the room. In one cupboard he found yet another notepad from the famed defense attorney. This one claimed that the this location, the hospital, was the most important location in the mnemonic abyss. The people he had seen there were extremely dangerous. There were also a few things there that reflected the normal world in a strangely distorted manner. Dahlia's presence was also notably strongest at the hospital, though, so extra precautions would be necessary.

So, this was the place at the center of it all. At least the office didn't seem so bad. Edgeworth went over to the desk by the door only to find another drawer that he hadn't checked yet. He pulled on the handle but it was locked securely and wouldn't budge. "I'll bet that's where the phone is, damn it," he complained to himself. After showing his light about the room he decided that, unless he took the time to upturn the entire office, it was highly unlikely that he had missed anything of importance. He started to move out from behind the desk only to have a man in hospital garb appear out of nowhere and catch his shoulders.

The sketchy hospital man shook him violently and yelled, "THAT'S MY DESK, I SWEAR! AND THE PRETTY NURSES WORK FOR ME, REALLY!"

"I'm not questioning that!" Edgeworth cried out, but the man's assault was unrelenting. "Get off!" The distressed prosecutor put all of his weight behind a single punch that actually made contact with his attacker's stomach. The man released him, doubled over, and disappeared. Whether or not he had been hurt was of no concern to Edgeworth. He was, however, worried about himself. His hand was still clenched into a tight fist and he could feel his knuckles throbbing a bit. He wasn't normally a man of action, after all. "Roll with the punches, Gumshoe would say," he muttered. "If I make it out of this, maybe I'll give that man a raise."

Finally feeling his heart rate return to a safe pace, he pointed his flashlight at the door and took a deep breath.

Then the light went out.

"No no no no, not now!" He hit the flashlight against his palm a few times and flicked the switch to no avail. The batteries were undeniably dead. He took a look around the room to see just how much the lack of light would obstruct his vision and was mortified to find that all details of the office had seemingly vanished. "Most dangerous place and I'm blind as a bat. I would be so lucky." He sighed and felt around for the doorknob to get through the door.

Outside of the office was just as bad. He had no choice but to feel around, but when he ran gut-first into a countertop, he knew that he was in for a world of trouble. His eyes weren't adjusting at all and it was starting to make him panic. After sliding around the counter until he found his way out, he saw the strange man who had attacked him walking out into the darkness. For some reason, the man was strangely visible in spite of the total darkness. With nothing else to go on, Edgeworth had no choice but to follow him, constantly feeling along the counter and then wall to keep a sense of location. He also made sure to keep his distance, not wanting to incite a fight that would get him even more lost than he already was. From what he could tell, they were going down a long hallway. There were many doors with signs on them, but none of the signs were legible in the dark.

Suddenly, the man turned in towards the wall and disappeared from Edgeworth's line of sight, forcing him to quicken his pace as he moved along the wall. The wall came to an abrupt end and, unprepared for the change, Edgeworth stumbled forward without anything to brace against and noticed the man down at a lower level on his left. There was a soft jingling sound, like he'd dropped something metal on the floor, and he disappeared in the darkness.

"Great. Stairs." Edgeworth sought out the railing and very slowly went down until the floor finally leveled out, then he got down on his hands and knees and searched for what the man had dropped. While searching, he managed to hit his head on what felt like a solid wall. He swept his hand against the floor as he brought it up to his injured head, hitting something along the way that jingled as it slid along the floor and went deeper into the all-consuming darkness. "Oh please, no." He felt around for a while longer but could find nothing. At last, he sat down feeling utterly defeated.

Without light, he didn't think he stood a chance at escaping. The most that he could do was search for clues and now he couldn't even navigate. He wondered if he would be doomed to face some sort of unspeakable evil in the abyss or just cursed to wander around in the darkness forever?

YIP YIP YIP!

"It can't be," he muttered in disbelief.

"HELLO!"

"Missile?"

"Mister Ruffles! Up here!"

Edgeworth searched around until he saw the caramel colored Pomeranian at the top of the stairs. He ended up crawling up the steps to stay stable and tackling the pooch. "Missile! Oh how I've missed you!"

"YIP! Are you feeling okay Mister Ruf- I mean Miles?"

"No, please, call me Ruffles or Pajama-man, or whatever you want, you brilliant creature, you!" He kissed the little guy's nose and immediately regretted it, wiping his mouth on his coat sleeve. "Never let me do that again."

Missile rubbed his nose with his paw and snorted. "You're acting really funny, Mister Ruffles. Are you lost?"

"Yes, actually," Edgeworth confessed. "I can't see a thing."

"Your light-stick won't help?" Missile questioned, not quite understanding what the problem was.

Edgeworth showed the dog his dead flashlight and explained, "It won't produce any more light for me."

Missile bounced a bit and went around in a few circles before telling him, "I saw something that made music and light upstairs! Would that help?"

Edgeworth adjusted his glasses and mumbled, "I'm not sure how something musical would—" It took a second, but finally the implications sank in. "Wait! Batteries! Surely that thing you spoke of must contain batteries! That could definitely work!"

"Batter-eez? Do those taste good?" Missile wondered.

Edgeworth shuddered and explained, "No. They're used to power things like my flashlight. They are also highly toxic and could yield detrimental results if consumed."

Missile tilted his head slightly and asked, "Does that mean that I shouldn't eat them?"

Edgeworth laughed slightly, admittedly bemused by the dog's lack of understanding, and clarified, "No, Missile. If you ate batteries you'd probably . . . " He froze and stared at the curious dog with a sudden sense of sadness. Whether or not Missile's situation was the same as Larry's, in this world he was, without a doubt, dead. And there Edgeworth was, preaching about the dangers of battery consumption. "Just. . . don't eat batteries, okay?" The dog continued to stare at him with oblivious and innocent eyes and the head prosecutor couldn't help but feel pity for it. "We should, um. . . we should go look for that light thing now."

Missile nodded energetically, still completely unaware of the inner turmoil that his companion was suffering from, and ran up what could only be more stairs. "Follow me, Mister Ruffles!" He hurried up a whole flight and waited anxiously for Edgeworth to catch up.

Edgeworth found his way back onto his feet, searched for the railing, and slowly made his way up the virtually invisible stairs. Two floors later, he could hear the faint sound of a familiar ballad in the distance. The first time he had heard the song was a few years back; he had been away in Britain at the time. Trucy had sent him a small package with a letter about the Anything Agency's new employee and the details on his first few cases. Included in the package was a CD with the hit single by the mysterious Lamiroir: The Guitar's Serenade. It was an enchanting song that had never bothered him before, but in the dark, isolated, horrors of the haunted hospital it was more than a little creepy.

Missile followed the sound down the hall a ways and stopped at what Edgeworth figured had to be a door. He scooted along the wall until he joined the dog and felt around for the frame of the door until he found the handle. He went in slowly, hoping to avoid any unwanted surprises, and saw a small music box sitting on a bedside table. It was lit up and had a woman in a starry cloak spinning in the gentle light that it cast about the room as the song played. Edgeworth picked it up and pulled the cover off the bottom to find a pair of batteries inside. He took them out and the light disappeared as the music was cut off. He shuffled his flashlight about a bit in the darkness until the batteries (which were, miraculously, a perfect fit) were in. He turned the switch on and light graced his vision once again, giving the world around him details that made it far less intimidating. "Thank you, Missile. You're a real life-saver." He scratched his companion's ears and the Pomeranian nuzzled against him happily.

Finally able to see again, Edgeworth checked around the room. It was definitely a hospital treatment room with four beds, two folding chairs, and two bedside tables. Also prominent in the room was a large window with the curtains drawn back. He half expected to see the awful swirling abyss on the other side, but there was nothing but blackness. He couldn't help but wonder if maybe something was blocking the windows. Maybe they were so grimy that they didn't even show through anymore.

"YIP YIP YIP!"

Dreading the bark that always alerted him to danger (typically a little after the fact), Edgeworth spun on his heels and saw the young producer/event-planner/Franziska-shadow, Adrian Andrews, dressed in a nurse's uniform as she stood over one of the folding chairs looking down at it. Accompanying her presence was the strange sound of someone screaming in the distance and it chilled him to his core, but she disappeared almost as quickly as she had shown up. He shivered before going to check the chair where she had been and there, sitting in plain sight, was a scrap of paper. It looked like a torn out diary page with the date scratched out.

* * *

><p><em>I just can't take it anymore. First Nurse Cykes, then the other women, and now the director died in strange and inexplicable ways. I can't help but feel like I'm next.<em>

_But, I guess that's for the best. After all, I couldn't save her. In the end, I couldn't even get a hold of her mother to tell her that her little girl was gone. This must be my punishment. If only she had waited just a moment longer. Miss Maya would have been awake and she could have told her that everything was alright. She could have said that her injuries weren't anything to worry about. Oh, Maya. To go all this time without ever knowing what really happened. Will she really be alright?_

_I feel like someone's watching me. Like they're just waiting to take me to join the others. I'm so scared. I just wish that this was all over._

* * *

><p>"Maya? I don't recall Maya ever getting seriously injured. . ." Edgeworth thought back to Dusky Bridge and what had been the longest case of his career (and his only case as an acting Defense Attorney) when they had all been faced with the horrible fear that Maya was long dead, but even then she emerged unscathed.<p>

He considered Phoenix's most recent note and really thought about the part where he mentioned how the abyss was starting to seem like a twisted caricature of the world that they knew. "He could have mentioned just how disturbing the differences were. . ." he murmured to himself.

Edgeworth folded the page up nicely and gave it a pocket of its own. Then he took a deep breath and decided that it was time to move on and continue his search for a means of escaping the Mnemonic Abyss. He went over to the door and—though he couldn't remember having closed it—opened it to the dark hallway.

Right as he took a step out, The Guitar's Serenade picked up where it left off. He slowly looked over his shoulder and saw that the music box was lit up again and the star-studded woman did one last spin, stopping only when she faced him. Just the thought of how the ominous little music box could possibly still be working without batteries was enough to make him hasten his step.

Out in the hallway, he could finally read the labels by the doors for each room (heck, he could finally _see_ the doors). A few rooms down he saw one that read: Computer Lounge. Recalling the message that Phoenix had left him back at the school, Edgeworth figured that checking computers was a safe place to start. As soon as he stepped into the room he heard the shrill yet distant screaming that had accompanied Miss Andrews before. He looked around but she was nowhere to be seen. In fact, he didn't even see any computers out in the open. There was, however, a large divider concealing part of the room.

With nowhere else to look, he peered around it and saw Adrian standing at one of the three computers set up on a long table. Her head was still downcast. She vanished again and left another paper on the keyboard. He picked it up without hesitating and read over it. It seemed to be another diary page, but just a bit older than the one before.

* * *

><p><em>It's so horrible. Pearly gone and no one to mourn her. Miss Maya was so traumatized that she doesn't even seem capable of accepting that it even happened. And since Miss Morgan escaped no one has been able to find her to even tell her that her daughter committed suicide. I'm scared to call anyone else from fear that they'll try to break the news to Maya. I don't think that her fragile mental state would be able to handle the shock. It just seems so cruel to sully Pearl's memory by denying her death. Oh, how I wish we could find Morgan. I know most of this was her fault, but no mother should go on not knowing what happened to her precious daughter.<em>

* * *

><p>"What? Pearl? Why would she. . ." Edgeworth's mind was reeling from the sudden revelation that the dead girl in the aforementioned page had been Maya's little cousin and, of all things, she had taken her own life! It was too much to take in at once. "It's not real," he was forced to remind himself. "Pearl is just fine. She knows better than to do something like that anyways."<p>

In spite of that, he couldn't help but wonder just what had pushed her to kill herself in the world of the abyss. Had she done something wrong? Maybe her entire personality was messed up. Some people certainly didn't act like themselves in that strange place. Then again, this was a world that seemed to be governed by the evilest entity that he knew. "Why would Dahlia show us this, Wright? What does she gain from this?"

As he continued to go over facts in his head, a strangely gentle presence caught his attention. He looked to the right and saw a woman in business attire walking slowly towards the window. "It can't be. . ." She stopped for a moment and looked over her shoulder just to give him a reassuring smile. Then she walked on and went right through the window.

"Mia Fey?" Aside from Phoenix's notes mentioning encounters with Dahlia, Edgeworth hadn't run into a single ghost that he knew was actually dead until now. Did Mia's presence mean something or was she just another piece in Dahlia's twisted game?

Still, the sight of her renewed Edgeworth's confidence. "I will save them," he assured her. "I promise."

After checking to see if the computers would turn on with no luck, he checked the rest of the room and failed to find anything else that might help him on his mysterious mission, so he went back out to the hall.

Straight across from the computer lounge was a room labeled "Cafeteria". The non-treatment rooms would be less eerie since it was less likely people had died in there, right? He opened the door and immediately sucked in a scream. Inside stood the entire badger family, all of them staring off into different directions. He closed the door slowly, not wanting to disturb the scene that would surely haunt his dreams for years to come. Hopefully there was nothing he needed in there.

Uncertain of where to go or what exactly he was supposed to be looking for at that point, he chose to zig-zag from room to room down the hallway. The rooms that he could enter didn't have anything of interest, though, and there were a few rooms that led out to the horrible, purple abyss.

When he made it to the far end of the hall he discovered another counter like the one he had been forced to feel around where he had first woken up and it encircled a door labeled "Nurse's Station". To his surprise, this particular door was locked tight.

"Had to be one eventually, I guess," he mumbled before glancing towards the two bathrooms at the very end of the hall. He cringed at the memory of waking up on the floor of the grimy bathroom in the nearly deserted school. Just a few yards away from them, however, was an opening with no door. He went over to see what exactly was inside and found a small kitchen of sorts. The most interesting thing was the rubbish chute. It had been left open and a light breeze was blowing through it. "Now where do you let out?" he wondered out loud. While the swirling purple abyss seemed to have a strong presence, it didn't have any air blowing from it, so wherever the chute let out had to be an actual place and possibly one that he had to visit. "If only I knew what phone number to call to get down there."

Having checked everything of interest, Edgeworth reordered his priorities.

1. Look for documents containing clues to whatever was going on in the world and how he might escape it.

2. Find out where the mysterious rubbish chute let out.

3. Find a cell phone.

4. Save who he could (hopefully everybody. Everybody would be nice).

And lastly: Wake up.

Repeating his priorities like a mantra, he made his way back down a floor. The middle floor looked identical to the third except that the rooms had different labels on them. To go about things systematically, he started with the first room on the right. "Operating room, huh? I'm sure _nothing_ would haunt a room like that." He wasn't certain why he had been sarcastic. Now that he'd said it like that he felt genuinely nervous about what could be waiting for him inside. Luckily, the only ghost that greeted him was Adrian again and, like before, she disappeared quicker than he could even worry about her, leaving another page behind.

* * *

><p><em>I can't believe she did it. Oh God, Pearly, why? You were so young. Maya never blamed you! If only she had woken up just a moment sooner. You would have seen her and this wouldn't have happened! And to think that I haven't even been able to contact her mother! I'm so sorry, Pearly. I should have seen the signs. But I thought that you knew. Maya would never blame you for hurting her like that. To think that spirit possession could even work like that! It wasn't really you. You would never hurt your cousin. Poor Maya. To wake up just in time to watch your little cousin jump from your own treatment room window. I just don't know what to do anymore. This tragedy is too much!<em>

* * *

><p>This particular page seemed to be written before the others. The sentiments felt over Pearl's death were so fresh that it was like it had just happened. And now Edgeworth had an inkling as to why Pearl had killed herself. It was possible that she had been possessed by Dahlia.<p>

He thought about how Dahlia had taken over Maya's body all those years ago in the court room. At the time, he had dismissed it as weird lighting, but it was hard to argue that possession didn't have anything to do with the case. But for someone to possess a poor little girl and force her to injure her own beloved cousin, that truly was evil.

Still, none of it made sense without being dated. Was this supposed to be recent? Or could it be. . . "Was this supposed to be the Dusky Bridge case?"

_THUMP!_

Edgeworth looked to the other door in the room and swallowed hard. He approached it cautiously and slid it along its tracks slowly. Inside appeared to be an ordinary Operating Room, aside from the creepy foreboding darkness that consumed everything. He noticed some gauze and bandage sitting on the operating table, but aside from that nothing seemed out of place, so he stepped in and scratched his head. "I wonder if I'll ever need these," he mumbled as he went to pick up the bandage.

Before he even had time to panic, a woman seemed to emerge from the table and, with what could only be described as the most disturbing laughter that he had ever heard, she grabbed him by his shirt collar, lifted him right off the floor, and threw him down against the cold metal table. Edgeworth winced in pain before looking up at his assailant. Suddenly she became frighteningly familiar. "Miss Cykes?" He was shocked by how strained his own voice sounded. "Good heavens, woman! What do you think you're doing?"

Like Adrian, Athena was wearing a nurse's uniform. She slammed her forearm against his throat to pin him down as she screamed, "I NEED TO TAKE YOU APART TO FIX YOU!" Her face twisted and contorted as her mouth broke into an impossibly large smile. Her hollow eyes somehow seemed bigger than normal and her eyebrows were bent upwards, like she was either crying or looking at him with immense pity. It was absolutely terrifying. She drew closer to him, cackling evilly, as she pressed harder and harder against his neck. He struggled frantically, flailing about as he searched for some means of removing her, until he finally managed to slide out from under her by rolling right off the table. He looked up at her and saw her smile flip, making her look menacingly angry as she faded away.

More determined to leave than ever, he jumped to his feet and ran straight for the door only to find that it had been shut tight. "No!" Fear consumed him as he tried with all his might to pry the thing off its hinges, but it simply wouldn't budge. "Help! Missile! Maya! Wright! ANYBODY!" But no one replied.

Suddenly Edgeworth felt a vice-like grip on his arm and he was thrown hard against the sink in the room. His body crumpled to the floor and the world spun around him. Athena crouched down to his level and took his collar in both hands to force him to focus on her hellish face. "I. . . I DON'T WANT TO. . . PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME!"

Still a little dazed, Edgeworth stared at her weakly."Make you? Who's making you—"

"NO!" She shook him once and his head slammed hard against the cabinet behind him, blurring his vision. "I. . . I DON'T WANT TO FIX ANYBODY! PLEASE! YOU HAVE TO SAVE HER!"

For a brief moment, Edgeworth could have sworn that he saw her actual eyes and they were over flowing with tears, but then he realized that he was staring at her strange necklace and the face it showed was sad and teary eyed. She faded away after that, her laughter fading with her, leaving him alone in his own agony.

Edgeworth sat still for a while, uncertain of whether or not he even _could_ stand up. He had dropped his flashlight when she first threw him around like a sack of flour and now it was sitting at his outstretched foot, pointing directly towards the door. What had just happened? He knew about Athena's history with her mother. He knew that she had tried to tear apart her mother's corpse to put her back together. Heck, that was a point that he himself had brought to Phoenix's attention during that pseudo-trial of sorts. But she specifically told him that someone was making her do it. Was she being controlled?

Maybe he wasn't thinking straight. Maybe his whole view of this nightmare was off. If ghosts could abuse him like that, what could he do to save anyone?

He stood up slowly, relieved to find that nothing was broken, and retrieved his flashlight before making his way back out to the hallway. It didn't take him long after that to notice the oddly unthreatening pitter-pattering sound nearby. He shone his flashlight further down the hall and found the latest addition to the world of weird; a little penguin that was waddling along just a few feet away. "Can you talk too?"

The penguin didn't even stop to acknowledge Edgeworth's presence, but the walkie-talkie strapped to its back gave off some static as a vaguely familiar voice said, "I'm sorry, Miles, but you've got to put up with this place just a little while longer. I believe in you. You can save them."

"Mia?" He followed the little penguin down the hall until it made an abrupt turn and waddled right through the door to room 201. Edgeworth threw the door open and gasped. It led to nothing but the purple swirling abyss. He held his breath and fearfully stuck his head out a little ways just to see if the penguin had fallen, but it was nowhere to be seen. He rubbed his temples. "Well, that was wildly unhelpful."

Just then, he felt something brush against his foot. "Missile?" He looked down and saw that it wasn't his usual companion, but a slender black cat with a red bandanna tied around its neck. It poked its head out into the abyss, much like he had a moment before, and sat back down to lick its paw.

"Poor guy was more lost than I am," the cat noted. "He'll be fine though. . . probably."

"You're like Missile," Edgeworth pointed out, a little less certain of his sanity now that he realized that he was trying to start a conversation with a cat.

The cat looked up at him and had a very human-like smug smile on its face. "Man, that dog gets around." It turned around and started down the hall.

"Wait! Am I supposed to follow the penguin?" Edgeworth wondered, entirely confused about what he had just been through and possibly still dazed from his encounter with the violent nurse Athena.

The cat looked back at him. "Why the hell would you do that? Does that swirling mass seem even _remotely_ safe? Honestly, sometimes I wonder if you guys have a death wish or something!"

"You've seen others?" Edgeworth didn't really want to dwell on his own shortcomings for longer than he had to.

The cat sat back down. "Sure. There was that girl with the weird purple clothes and the man with the strange glowing glasses."

"Glowing glasses?" That description was lost on him. "Never mind. Interesting as this meeting has been, I really should be going. I've got important matters to take care of."

"Hold on, Ruffles. She wanted you to go this way."

"She?" Edgeworth ended up following the cat further down the hall as he continued to talk to it. "Who is she?"

The cat stopped by the counter at the end and looked up at him. "You know who I mean." It hopped up onto the counter and pointed its tail at the door. "Anyways, she said to go that way."

"The nurse's station?"

The cat's eyes narrowed and it hissed out, "I don't know, I CAN'T READ! Why would a cat be able to read? God!" It hopped down angrily and wandered back down the hall until it disappeared from sight.

"Well I didn't think cat's could _talk_ either, honestly," Edgeworth said to no one in particular as he went around the counter and into the room. Inside looked relatively similar to the director's office. He tore through cupboards and checked through files, but the only item of interest was a contact list for supposed hospital employees—all of whom he was certain had never worked in a hospital—with most of the numbers scratched off.

* * *

><p>EMA SKYE: XXX-X63-214<p>

AURA BLACKQUILL: XXX-X38-922

ADRIAN ANDREWS: XXX-X16-286

ATHENA CYKES: XXX-X21-884

PLUM KITAKI: XXX-X55-364

* * *

><p>None of the numbers would be of much use to him as they were—and he didn't particularly want to know what could happen if he called a wrong number anyways—so he tucked the list away and turned, only to see Athena's twisted face. "Oh sh-"<p>

She took him by his shirt and threw him towards the door. He landed on his side and quickly scrambled to get out. He made it, but was still on the floor with his heart racing. He crawled away from the door and looked back only to see her peek out at him, scowl, and slam the door. A loud clicking sound accompanied it which meant that she had locked it.

"Guess I won't be going back there any time soon." He sighed and looked towards the bathrooms again. Just like on the floor before, there was that small opening just past them. He went over to it to find a kitchen identical to the other, but the rubbish chute was shut tight and wouldn't budge. "Guess it doesn't let out here then," he muttered when he gave up trying to force it open. Not sure that he wanted to stick around on the floor where the evil Athena had taken up residence, he decided that it was time to go down another floor, back to where he had started.

Upon reaching the first floor, he recalled how the strange man had dropped something down lower and went down the last available flight of stairs. They led to a wall with a single door that said "Basement", but there didn't seem to be any means of opening it. He searched the area around his feet and found a small key hidden in the corner. He snatched it up and checked to see if the basement door had a keyhole but couldn't even find a doorknob, so he tucked it away in his breast pocket and went back up to the last of the hallways. There, he saw Adrian just as she floated into a room just across from the counter at the end of the hall. Thus far she had proven to be a much gentler nurse than Athena, so he wasn't too worried about following her.

The door she'd gone into was the Consultation Room. He opened the door and immediately saw her standing in front of a small shelf at the far end of the room with her usual distant scream sounds accompanying her presence. She vanished again, so he made his way over and found the page that she had left behind this time.

* * *

><p><em>It's so hard to see Pearly like this. I found her at the pay phone today, trying to get a hold of her mother. She was crying as she left a message. I know that a lot of this is Miss Morgan's fault, but she's still Pearly's mother and she shouldn't just abandon her daughter at a time like this. I'm worried about what Pearly might do if Miss Maya doesn't wake up soon. I'll just have to keep an eye on her. Maybe I'll try writing a letter to Miss Morgan. Someone has to reach her.<em>

* * *

><p>The idea of Pearl's suicide was starting to get to Edgeworth. He wanted to wake up, if only to put the thought of the sweet little girl killing herself far from his mind.<p>

"HELLO!"

Edgeworth flinched and looked down to see his favorite animal companion pawing at his ankles. "Missile! Where do you keep disappearing to?" he couldn't help but wonder.

"The nice lady! She protects us from the mean people," he answered outright. "She looks a little like Miss Hamburgers!"

Edgeworth tried to make sense of the little dog's words. Finally he realized the only person who even slightly resembled Maya. "Mia?"

"I don't know," Missile barked. "Oh! Mister Ruffles! I found more of your pocket paper!"

"What? But I got back my— Wait, do you mean another note from Phoenix?" He crouched down and scratched the dog's ears fondly. "Have I mentioned how wonderful you are?"

"Well, you did kiss me. . ." Missile brushed his paw against his nose, almost like he was embarrassed. "But come on! I'll show you to the pocket paper!" He rushed right through the door and Edgeworth hurriedly chased after him. Out in the hallway, the little guy ran all the way to the end where the dreaded bathrooms were. He stopped and spun around to see where Edgeworth was, and bounced about playfully in anticipation. "In here, Mister Ruffles!"

Edgeworth sighed and mumbled, "Of course he had to hide one in the filthiest place imaginable." He followed Missile into the men's bathroom and all the way down to the last dark stall. Missile pawed at the wall behind the toilet and jumped a few times. It finally occurred to Edgeworth that his furry friend walked around when all of the other ghosts he had encountered seemed to have no difficulty defying gravity. Why _was_ the little dog so different?

"Mister Ruffles," Missile whined. "A little help? I can't reach it!"

"Right." Edgeworth reluctantly reached for the scrap of paper and read it.

* * *

><p><em>I see dead people.<em>

_Seriously, she's shown me how people died in this world. The director-like guy was caught impersonating a doctor, tried to flee, and stumbled into some medical instruments before tripping and impaling himself on a scalpel. Then there was Pearls. That was just difficult to see. But Athena. She was just as real as I am. For Dahlia to do that. . . I have to get away from here or I'm certain I'll be next. But how do I escape? Where else can I go?_

* * *

><p>Edgeworth shivered before tucking the note away. He thought of Athena again and started to grasp the situation a bit more. Athena was like Larry. Everyone else was nothing more than a weird illusion created by their memories of them (he hoped). But the people who were at the agency, the people near the black magatama, they were real. Larry and Athena were really there. And Phoenix.<p>

"Please," Edgeworth whispered. "Please, let them just wake up like this was all bad dream."

"Mister Ruffles? Are you okay?" Missile looked up at him curiously and Edgeworth took a deep breath.

"I don't know, Missile," he admitted. "But I won't find out until I get out of here."

Missile whimpered a bit and asked, "So where should you go next?"

Edgeworth straightened out his coat and heard the soft jingling in his pocket. He remembered the key and figured that the locked desk in the office was the best place to check next. Without telling Missile where he was going, he exited the bathroom and went straight to the place behind the counter and into the room where he had started.

"Mister Ruffles? You don't look so good," Missile pointed out as he tagged along.

Edgeworth went around the desk and pulled out the small key only to fumble around with it clumsily before dropping it as well as his flashlight. "Damnit!" He slammed his hands on the desk and lowered his head. "I have to get out of here." His whole body trembled uncontrollably. "I-I need to calm down, but I just can't stop shaking." Now that he was uncertain of his friends' fates, the gravity of the situation really hit him hard. "Am I. . . am I really going to die here?"

"Mister Ruffles!" Edgeworth sat up and looked down at the little dog, who was nuzzling the flashlight towards his foot. "Don't be afraid. She's trying to help you."

"She's killing us off one by one!" he yelled. "How is that helping anything?"

"The lady would never kill you guys!" Missile defended. "She just wants to help!"

It took Edgeworth a moment to realize that they weren't talking about the same person. "You mean. . . Mia? Is she watching over us?"

Missile ran around in circles before saying, "I don't know her name. But she's nice! She always smiles when I say hello! She's trying to help you guys, but she can only do so much. That's why Sissel and I are helping!"

"Sissel?" Edgeworth looked at the dog in confusion.

"Yeah! He's a cat! But don't worry, he's a good cat. Most cats aren't really all that good. Cats are bad. I hate cats." Missile seemed to be having some inner turmoil of his own. "But I like Sissel!"

Edgeworth smiled and took a deep breath before picking up his flashlight and the small key. "You're more helpful than you know, Missile." He calmed down enough to steady his hands and unlock the drawer. Inside was a cell phone and a memo with unfamiliar handwriting on it.

* * *

><p><em>Check the memo documents in the basement.<em>

_Athena Cykes: 997-521-884_

* * *

><p>"That's it!" Edgeworth exclaimed. "The rubbish chute lets out somewhere below the first floor, so it must let out in the basement!"<p>

Missile stared at him excitedly and asked, "Where's a rubber shoe? Can I play with it?"

Edgeworth rolled his eyes. "Never mind that." He picked up the cell phone and sighed with relief. "It's good to have a means of escape again." Then he looked at the memo and realized that Athena's was the first number he had seen in a while. "I guess this is where we'll part," he muttered to his furry companion. "I hope we run into each other again."

Missile whimpered, but assured him, "I'll make sure to say hello!"

Edgeworth gathered all of his courage and dialed the number on the memo only to go through the familiar sensation of transporting again. However, when he opened his eyes, he found himself in an all too familiar looking room.

"I'm still at the hospital?"

He sat up and looked around. It seemed like he was in the nurse's station, but there were a few things that were different. The most notable was the phone lying next to him on the floor. He immediately picked it up and noticed the small charm attached that looked identical to the necklace that he saw around Athena's neck. He turned the screen on to confirm that it worked and was greeted with the disturbing image of a strange bird monster wrestling an even stranger fox man. "Definitely Miss Cykes' phone," he mumbled as he put it away in one of his pockets.

He stood up and checked over the room with his flashlight. He was certain that he hadn't been in that particular room before, but it was still unmistakably a part of the same creepy hospital that he had spent so much time in.

After searching the room to find that nothing of interest was hidden inside, he went over to the door and noticed that it was locked from his side. "So that's why I never found her phone." He undid the latch and stepped out to find himself behind the counter on the third floor. "Well, now I know what was in there."

The faint hissing of air made him remember the open hatch to the rubbish chute as well. "If I'm still at the hospital, then perhaps that phone is still where I left it! If I were to drop this one down there, I could transport to the basement!" Certain of his theory, he ran all the way back down to the first floor and into the director's office only to find Missile sniffing at the cell phone that had been left behind the desk.

"Mister Ruffles! You're here! I was so confused! I thought you were leaving, not disappearing! That was a really neat trick!"

Edgeworth wanted to point out that Missile was quite skilled at disappearing at inconvenient times himself, but decided that he didn't have time to go through such a pointless argument with a dog. "Thanks for watching it for me," he offered, trying to keep the little guy happy. "I finally think I know what to do."

Missile panted for a brief second before mentioning, "It really was weird to watch though, Mister Ruffles. You just sort of went 'POOF' and then the thingy you put up to your ear fell and I was scared that it was broken!"

"Broken?" The thought hadn't crossed Edgeworth's mind. He quickly examined the phone to find that it _did_ have a couple scratches on it that he didn't recognize from before. "No," he said, but it was distracted. If he dropped a phone from the third floor to the basement, there was no chance that it would survive the fall. He needed something to cushion it. "What around here is soft?" he asked.

"There's a lot of soft stuff!" Missile barked. "I'm soft! And that funny white stuff lying around with the long cloth is pretty soft too!"

It took a while for Edgeworth to recognize that the dog was referring to cotton and bandage. "That'll work just fine, I think," he decided. "Can you show me where you found those things?"

Missile nodded vigorously and scampered towards the door. "Follow me!"

Edgeworth followed the eager dog up a floor and to the operating room that he dreaded so much. Once inside, Missile stood in front of the door to the horrible room where Athena had first assaulted Edgeworth. "The stuff is right in here!" Missile insisted.

"Is anything or anyone else in there?" Edgeworth asked. He wasn't overly keen on getting attacked by Athena again. Regardless of if it was really her, another encounter wouldn't likely end well for him.

Missile sniffed at the door. "It smells a little like fish, but I don't think there's anyone in there."

Edgeworth took the dog at its word and opened the door. As soon as they saw what was inside, Missile made a quiet whimpering sound and vanished, leaving Edgeworth alone to stare at the man hunched over the empty operating table. He had large, bush-like hair that seemed impractical for a doctor. The man appeared to be operating on a non-existent body while Edgeworth watched.

"SCALPEL. . ."

When no one handed the utensil to him, he just proceeded to pick it up on his own and continue about working on the invisible patient. So far, he hadn't noticed Edgeworth, so Miles got the chance to look in and and see if he could spot the items that Missile had described.

"THERE'S A LOT OF BLOOD. . ."

In spite of the strange surgeon's eerie words, Edgeworth continued to stay focused and search the room with his eyes.

"PEEP!"

That sound, however, caught him off guard. He looked back at the surgeon to see that it had come from a little penguin that was sticking out of the man's hair. Edgeworth wasn't granted much time to ponder the weird situation, though, since in the next second the surgeon was staring right at him with dark, hollow eyes.

"WHO IS THAAAAAT?

Suddenly, Edgeworth's flashlight went out. "No no no no!" He slapped it against his palm until it clicked back to life and looked up to see that the surgeon was halfway between the operating table and the doorway where he was still standing, gradually moving closer. The flashlight went out again and Edgeworth took a cautionary step back. When it clicked back on again, the creepy surgeon was face to face with him, glaring him down. "Uwaaah!" Edgeworth fell backwards and the surgeon slammed the OR door shut. Relieved that he didn't actually get attacked, Edgeworth exhaled deeply and relaxed.

"Guess I won't be going back in there ever again." He looked around and found that, as expected, Missile was gone. "Why _do_ I keep trusting that dog?" he wondered out loud.

Almost as soon as he said it, Missile walked through the OR door with the cotton and gauze in his mouth. He set them down in front of Edgeworth and said, "Sorry, Mister Ruffles. I didn't know that there was more than that funny little bird in there, but I got you the stuff that you wanted, so please don't hate me."

Edgeworth smiled and scratched the back of his companion's ears. "You're a really good dog, Missile. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise." Missile yipped happily and danced about as Edgeworth got to his feet. "Hopefully this works."

The duo went back up to the kitchen vent on the third floor and Edgeworth wrapped Athena's cell phone in the gauze before throwing it down into the vent. Then he looked at Missile. "I'm going to go away again, and I'm not entirely sure where I'm going or if I'll see you again."

Missile whimpered and put a paw on Edgeworth's shoe. "I can always sniff you out. Don't worry, Mister Ruffles."

Edgeworth couldn't help but smile. He knew of the old term "man's best friend," but never in his life did he think that he would find such a friend as Missile. Of course, he never thought that he'd be caught in a strange world where he'd be able to talk to a dog either, but he couldn't have hoped for a better companion than Missile. "Thank you, Missile. But I've got a favor to ask you. I want you to stick around and help my friend Maya."

"You mean Hamburgers?" When Missile perked up at the mentioning of the spirit medium, Edgeworth's confidence in their chances of survival were renewed.

"Yeah. The way that things have been going, I have little doubt that she'll be here at some point. There are some things she's sure to discover here that she won't handle well," Edgeworth tried to explain. "I want you to help her out as much as you can. I think having you around will be a good distraction." He crouched and petted the dog before saying, "If I need to, I'll come back here, but she's your first priority from here on out. Understood?"

Missile nodded and leaped up into Edgeworth's arms to lick his face. "Be safe, Mister Ruffles! I'll see you soon!" He then hopped down and started to run off, disappearing into the dark hallway.

Edgeworth gathered up all of his courage before pulling out the note with Athena's number on it and dialing it into the director's phone. "See you soon," he muttered as he hit send.

The world around Edgeworth started to fade to black. He laid down carefully and welcomed the nauseating feeling of transporting. When he opened his eyes the darkness had receded and he was left on the floor of another strange room. He surveyed the area with his flashlight and decided that, thankfully, the chute was for laundry and not garbage since the room was full of washing machines.

Not wanting to stay there for long, he picked up the padded phone and unraveled the bandages before tucking it away in one of his pockets. Then he moved towards the door in the room only to see the washing machine doors swing open on their own. Definitely not sticking around here.

He made his way out to the basement hallway of the hospital and shivered. It wasn't that this particular place was any colder than the rest of the hospital, but it seemed to have a more threatening air about it. He looked to the first door on his left and was surprised to find that the placard that would have had the room's name on it was missing from its slot. The door was unlocked, so he went inside.

Nothing that he had faced thus far could have prepared him for what he saw in there. There was a faint stench of rotting flesh and countless doors that resembled the washing machines' along a wall.

And a single corpse was lying out on a table in the middle of the room.

This was the _actual_ morgue.

While he was relieved that the body didn't belong to Pearl, Dahlia's corpse was still pretty gruesome to look at. She looked almost like she was asleep under the tarp that covered her from the neck down, but her lips were cracked and the slightest hint of rot was creeping up from her neck. Her lifeless body mixed with the putrid stench was enough to make his knees go weak.

"So this is it," he muttered, trying to force himself to calm down. "I bet this is how she looks right now in the real world." He couldn't help but stare at her. Just looking at her reminded him that, no matter what they were going through now, there was no denying that the perpetrator was dead and gone. She had been for almost a decade, after all. "Good riddance."

He took a step back, not wanting to spend any more time there than he had to, and noticed something beneath the table where here corpse was. he got down onto his knees and retrieved what looked like a cell phone key with a Chinese character on it. He stood back up just in time to see Dahlia's ghost come rising out of her body. He dropped the key and sucked in a scream, but she swiftly lunged at him and dug what felt like sharp claws into his throat. Edgeworth fought her with all the strength that he could muster until she finally released him and retreated back. He hastily turned to leave only to find that the door had somehow been closed behind him. He turned the knob and pushed hard, but it was stuck in place. "You've got to be kidding me!" He held the knob and rammed his shoulder into it a few times before feeling something painfully tight around his ankles. He looked down and was horrified to find countless hands grabbing at his feet.

"FOR DAHLIA!" they cried as they grabbed at him.

Edgeworth stomped away the hands and slammed into the door one last time, finally forcing it open. He turned back to close it and saw his sinister foe right on the other side, glaring him down with inhuman eyes. He slammed the door in her face and slowly backed away from the room. To his amazement, she didn't go after him any more than that, but the encounter alone was enough to challenge his convictions.

"She's really here," he muttered. He put a hand over his chest and felt his heart racing. "It's because of her that Larry and Athena are dead. . . Because of her, Phoenix. . ."

He couldn't afford to give up now. He'd been through too much to just throw everything away at the first sign of Dahlia.

In no time, he reached the end of the hallway to find that there were two rooms parallel to each other just before the stairwell. Before checking either one, he went up the stairs to see if he could open the basement door from that side. It turned out to be a wasted effort, so he went back towards the hall.

Right when he turned the corner he heard the shrill sound that accompanied the old woman in red and his entire body froze up as if it had been encased in ice. Not far from where he stood, the old woman was out in full view. She stared at him with her horrible, bloodshot eyes and opened her mouth.

"FOLLOW MEEEEE, EDGYPOOOOOOO!"

She beckoned him towards her with a single finger and slowly moved towards the room on his right. He could hear every raspy breath as she moved away. When she finally vanished through the door, the awful noise and death-like chill vanished with her. He quietly vowed to stay away from the room where she had gone by any means necessary.

That left him with only one final room to check.

The final room was labeled "Data Room," so he figured that it was likely that he would find the documents mentioned in the note there, but as soon as he opened the door, he was overwhelmed with a sense of defeat. Many of the shelves had been knocked over and files were scattered everywhere, as if someone had rifled through them before he had even gotten there. "Damn. Just what am I supposed to look for?"

The eerie sound that accompanied Adrian returned and she appeared just a little ways ahead of him. She waved her hand for him to follow, and led him to a particular file on a still-standing shelf before disappearing. Grateful for her guidance, he picked it up and looked it over.

It was a report about Pearl's suicide that was typed up by the director of the hospital. He was apparently determined to brush the whole incident under the rug, claiming that the hospital itself had nothing to do with the incident. Edgeworth supposed that the hospital must have been a fine establishment at some point in the past, but now it was nothing more than the place of nightmares that Dahlia had erected.

Adrian appeared again when he was done reading the file and led him around a few shelves to a file on the floor. That file was a report about what was apparently the first unexplained death at the hospital. The deceased was none other than Aura Blackquill. Apparently she had collapsed randomly at work and no one could figure out what had afflicted her. She fell into a coma that lasted only a few days before she died completely.

Aura's death had started rumors. People believed that the vengeful spirit of the little girl who had committed suicide was haunting the hospital, killing the people who worked there. The director adamantly refused to acknowledge that there was anything wrong with his hospital.

The files were strange, but Edgeworth chose to keep reading every single one that Adrian pointed him towards. The third file was about the John Doe who posed as Bobby Fulbright. Apparently he had been brought in for a medical checkup after having been shot, but he slipped into a coma and died two days later. The fourth file was rather vague. It was nothing more than a short report about the fact that Athena had been added to that body count. The director gave a brief apology for the whole issue, but was still unwilling to give any further comments on the matter.

The last file that Adrian showed him was just an official notice from the hospital board. Apparently the director had died in a similarly mysterious way and they had officially decided to close the hospital down. They were finally taking full responsibility for the horrors that had occurred in their establishment that was built to heal, not hurt.

When he finished reading that report, Adrian didn't appear. The information was interesting, but none of it got Edgeworth any closer to understanding how to get out of the Mnemonic Abyss and they didn't give him any new numbers to try out. He couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. At first, the abyss had been nothing but a world of horrors, but then it quickly warped into a realm of torture and death. The longer he spent there, the less he felt like he would ever be able to escape.

"Maybe this is it. Maybe this is where it all ends," he murmured, slumping against the shelf.

"I WANTED TO HELP. . ." Adrian appeared before him and looked right at him. The usual sound that accompanied her was gone as she stood there. He looked at her and, for the first time, he saw her eyes. They were the same empty holes as most of the spirits that he had encountered, but there was a hint of sadness about them that tugged at his heartstrings. "I WANTED TO HELP HER. . ."

Edgeworth stood up and she drifted towards the door. He went after her and found her floating above a completely knocked over shelf. Two prominent files sat on top of it that he didn't recall having been there when he entered. Adrian disappeared again with her sad words looming in her absence. Edgeworth picked up one of the files and opened it only to start shaking.

It was Pearl's official death certificate.

Even though he knew that the whole ordeal was nothing more than a twisted version of the past created by Dahlia, seeing the actual certificate was jarring. It had all of Pearl's information carefully printed on it; as well as a date, time, and means of death. She had left the hospital to return to Hazakura temple and throw herself off of the bridge and into the river. It also mentioned a note that was left with her cousin.

Not wanting to accept the facts printed before his eyes, Edgeworth dropped the certificate and picked up the other paper. It wasn't a file at all. It was a contact book with Morgan Fey's phone number circled. A loose note fell out into his hand. He opened it up and saw a short message scrawled out in childish handwriting.

* * *

><p><em><em>It's all my fault. I'm so sorry. For everything. I caused this entire situation, and now it's time for me to pay for what I've done.<em>_

* * *

><p>Edgeworth clenched the note tightly in his hand. It was a suicide note written by a mere child who didn't understand that nobody blamed her. "I'm so sorry, Pearls. I will solve this. I will bring Maya back to you."<p>

He pulled out Athena's cell phone and dialed the number for Morgan. It was time to find the truth.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**Wow. I feel like this chapter was a little long winded. Well, you're getting pretty close to the end of this endless fanfic! Exciting, right? From here it goes repeat Maya chapter, final Edgeworth chapter, final Maya chapter, then a neat little wrap-up! Of course, we can't claim victory until we get it all published for you guys to read.  
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**Anywho, I think I did a good job of defining all of the encounters, but just in case, here's an explanation of the stranger ones. We looked up the director guy, hoping to find a name, and found that he never really got one. But he's the Hickfield clinic "director" from _Reunion, and Turnabout_, the second case in the second game (for a refresher). Wasn't it fun to see "nurse Thena" again? Sorry she was so mean to Edgy. I figured that strangling and shaking had been overplayed, and Athena wasn't known for such gentle tactics anyways. Then, of course, there was a whole petting zoo of weird characters this time around. Hopefully you've already gotten our explanations for Missile and Sissel (our non-Ace Attorney friends). As for the penguins, the one that walked out into the abyss was Rifle and the one in the surgeon's hair was Sniper. The surgeon himself was Herman Crab. Those three characters are only in the DLC trial for Dual Destinies. It's a fun trial, and a bit more challenging than the strangely simple cases that went on in the rest of that game. Lastly, the mo-ped dent in the parking garage door is from the fake Phoenix: Furio Tigre. That encounter actually made Melody and I panic the first time that we played through because, for some reason, Dahlia didn't attack Makoto. We were still expecting it, so when the entire wall dented towards us we thought that she was PISSED. Go figure, it was a false alarm. (Melody Note: This encounter was cut; as you enter a hallway, suddenly the nearby door is dented in with a loud sound.)That's all of the odd ones.**

**Sorry about the whole Pearl-suicide-thing. But you're close to the end! You don't really think we'd let that cardinal sin from the first half stay permanent, did you? Just because we have sadistic tendencies as writers doesn't mean that we kill everybody's beloved characters! And on a side note, I know I've mentioned a Dangan Ronpa/Zero escape crossover before, but there's another that will probably come first. That would be a Sailor Moon/Fatal Frame cross. Unfortunately, we don't have a way to tie that story up with a neat little bow, so many beloved sailor senshi will be killed in the making of that fanfic. But if anybody's a fan of Michiru (Neptune), Haruka (Uranus), Ami (Mercury), and Setsuna (Pluto), they will be our main protagonists in this upcoming story. It will consist of plot work from all 3 Fatal Frame games, so be on the lookout!  
><strong>

**Melody Canta ::**

**I just cut a thousand words from this and it's still the longest chapter by a good amount. The amount of information in this chapter is enough to make your head spin, so I might recommend another read through if this seemed really hard to understand. The Herman Crab encounter is my favorite (when we played through this game the first time, we had recently finished cramming Trauma Team the weekend before, ending at close to five in the morning, so we were joking that the doctor was us last week. And then I realized I couldn't move away. Panic-inducing for sure), but there are a lot of good encounters. Edgeworth finally gets to face Dahlia, so we're coming full circle.**

**As Shikola mentioned, we've got a good list coming for you after this fanfic! At the moment:**

**1. The Companion Piece! This is the companion piece to The Final Turnabout, and the first few chapters are ready to be beta-ed. This is alternate realities, clarifications, and anything that got missed in the first two runthroughs. This is a fairly casual set of loosely-connected oneshots, so it's only sort of a high priority once the chapters we have done are up.**

**2. Sailor Moon / Fatal Frame. As Shikola mentioned, it's the first three Fatal Frame games with the Sailor Moon characters thanks to the fact that I've infected Shikola with my love of the senshi. **

**3. Zero Escape / Dangan Ronpa. Depending on how we decide to do what Shikola's dubbed as 'Sailor Frame', this may actually come out at about the same time. **

**All of these are going to be similar to this fanfiction: a crossover, but a good amount of each is going to be original story, so even if you're not overly familiar with any or all of these, we're going to be very careful to make sure it's worth reading for everyone, regardless of how much you know about any of these.**

**Anyways, we're coming up on the end, so keep reading!**


	16. The Turnabout Lamentation

**WARNING: POSSIBLE TRIGGERS FOR SUICIDE**

**If you could be triggered by this, PLEASE do not read this chapter. If you're dying to know what happens, send a PM, and I would love to summarize for you what happens. Also know that Shikola and I are more than willing to talk if you need to, and that we're here! **

**Like the other Maya chapters, this is a rewritten chapter. It's advised to review it, since it's a major chapter and has been dramatically rewritten for clarity.**

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><p><strong>Chapter Eight :: The Turnabout Lamentation<strong>

Maya stood in the bedroom of Mia's house, looking at Adrian's letter for a long time. Why couldn't she remember major events in Mia's life? Or her own life, for that matter? Other than their recent encounter, how did she not remember this Mr. Armando—who must be the Diego in Mia's letter, she realized—despite the fact that he and Mia had been together? Had Mia just omitted that fact?

Diego Armando . . . what had happened to him? The man she'd seen in the doll house had to have been him (though the visor was an interesting fashion statement, if nothing else). So he was stuck like she and Edgeworth (and Larry, but, well, that hadn't ended too well for Larry). Why? What did he have to do with any of this?

In any case, she now had a new number to call. She had high hopes for this one, seeing as Mia had led her straight to it. Maybe it was the number that would finally get her out! She flipped the phone open and dialed Adrian's number.

_997-116-286_

Everything faded quickly, the familiar tile floor of the hospital appearing in her vision first. Adrian must have worked at Kuromiya Hospital. The same hospital Diego Armando had been admitted to. Maybe he had more to do with things than she'd originally thought.

She looked around the room, trying to figure out exactly where in the hospital she was. There were rows of tables and chairs, lunch trays stacked on one side of the room. There was a TV and stand in the corner. This had to be the hospital cafeteria.

A cell phone rang in the silence, the sound coming from the television cabinet. She opened it to find a blue cell phone this time. She flipped it open. "Hello?"

_"I wanted to help. I tried to help her." _Maya had only heard Adrian Andrews distraught a few times, but this seemed to be the worst of them all. The call ended, and Maya turned around only to be greeted by the woman in question. Maya gasped, but Adrian only turned around, glancing over her shoulder and going through the door.

Should she follow? Maya wasn't quite sure, but there didn't seem to be much she could do sitting around here, so she followed Nurse Adrian into the hallway.

The hallway was completely empty except for Adrian, who was walking down the hall slowly, glancing over her shoulder every few steps to check that Maya was following. The spirit medium let the door slam behind her, realizing what was about to happen a second too late.

The wind from the door blew the candle flame out.

How often had Aunt Morgan scolded her during her training? Candle flame goes out easily, "and it could become dangerous for the medium," Maya recited, feeling foolish. Now she was in the dark with a bunch of ghosts who probably wanted her dead for various reasons. Adrian glowed, and she didn't look like she was going to attack any time soon, so it only made sense to keep following her.

The hallway ended in a T, like the previous floors, and Adrian rounded a desk on the right side of the corner, phasing through the door. Maya opened the door, delighted when she was met with fluorescent lighting. Finally, power! Electricity! Apparently not every power line in the spirit world was down.

The room looked like an office, with a desk and computer in one corner and a stainless steel table with a whiteboard in the other. Adrian was almost transparent in the light, bent over a table. One hand was pressed over her mouth and her shoulders shook. Maya approached, reaching one hand out instinctively to rest on the older woman's shoulder, but Adrian vanished suddenly.

What had just happened? Had Adrian tried to lead her to something like last time? But there was nothing there!

She had a really bad feeling about all of this.

The lights suddenly went out, bathing the room in the same darkness that the hallway was experiencing. Maya groaned. Time to find a light again, and quick.

Priority number one: Find a light.

Priority number two: Get out of here.

Priority number three: Make sure Pearly is okay.

Her hand fumbled in her pocket for the matches, but they weren't there. The man who had stolen the letter at Mia's house . . . she hadn't thought about the matches when she was checking her pockets then. Had he taken them?

She searched for the doorknob in the darkness, her hand finding it after some difficulty. She turned it, stopping abruptly when something played behind her. The Steel Samurai theme? She turned to see a mechanical Steel Samurai toy taking small steps towards the door, his entire body lit up. Talk about awesome. How did she _not_ have one of those?

But wait. How was it moving?

She realized it a second too late. The toy died in its tracks, leaving Maya to try to salvage the batteries that must have been powering it. She had to scrabble at the plastic to find the battery cover, exchanging the batteries with the ones in her flashlight. She flicked the "On" switch.

No luck. They were dead.

But now she had an idea. Noises meant either phones or batteries, both of which were good from her point of view. She didn't have to go into every single room: as long as she heard noise, she could enter for something she might need.

Her resolve renewed, she exited the room and walked towards the glowing stair sign, pressing her ear to the doors she passed in the hope she might hear something.

"Poor Maya Fey, presumed dead. You left her all alone, you know." The voice came from behind her, and Maya jumped, whirling back around to see Dahlia walking down the hall towards her. Like all of the ghosts, she seemed to glow as well, but there was something that _didn't_ look dead about Dahlia. Perhaps it was that her words weren't slow and tortured like the others. Or maybe it was that where the others seemed to have blank, white eyes, Dahlia's gaze was sharp, her irises rimmed with a tiny sliver of red. "Everyone leaves her. Everyone _always_ leaves her."

"What are you talking about?" Maya demanded, taking a step back. There was something different about Dahlia this time compared to the last. Last time, she had been weak, and she'd spoken to Maya with such compassion that the spirit medium had wanted her to stay. This time, their conversation had barely started, and Maya wanted out.

Dahlia gave her girlish giggle, tilting her head coyly. "You don't remember? Well, I suppose you wouldn't. Just like her."

"Just like who?"

Hands rose out of the ground suddenly, the hallway filled with groans of "Dahlia . . . our precious Dahlia." Before she could react, they grabbed her legs, forcing a scream from her mouth as they tried to pull her into the hole created in the tile. She fought, eventually freeing a leg so she could kick the rest away. She stumbled back, falling and scooting away from the hands as quickly as she could before getting to her feet again. Her vision flickered and went red, the effect of massive spiritual power being released. Dahlia walked towards her slowly, the disembodied hands gone. The power surrounding her was . . . enormous. If she touched Maya with even a single finger, Maya's soul would be obliterated completely.

But that was impossible! Dahlia hadn't had any spiritual power herself. Still, Maya turned and sprinted towards the stairs. The doors slammed shut in front of her, her body colliding against them, stunning her momentarily. She rattled the handles and threw her shoulder into the split as Dahlia got closer and closer. She wasn't stopping—she was a mere foot from Maya, leaning forward, one lock of hair hovering an inch away from Maya's shoulder. The energy suddenly calmed, the tension in the entire room defusing instantly. "Not yet, Maya Fey," Dahlia said, her voice barely above a whisper. "You might have gotten away last time, but not this time."

The door flung open, and Maya careened downwards, falling down the stairs suddenly in front of her. Her back slammed against the wall, and once she wasn't seeing stars, she looked up to see that Dahlia was gone.

What had she meant? What was she talking about?

She brushed herself off, rubbing at her scraped up knees and elbows. If there was any question that what she had been experiencing wasn't real in some way, this was her wake up call.

This was real.

She needed to get out of here.

First things first. She needed a light. She wasn't about to face Dahlia in the dark again.

She took the stairs down to the second floor, listening in at the doorways. She could hear mumbling in Room 204, but when she entered, it was the strange blue light and her phone vibrated. She took it out and hit the record button.

_"His hair is starting to turn white."_ That was Iris; Maya could tell from the last recording.

_"The doctors say that's a good thing. His body is conserving energy to fight the poison."_ That was Mia. Despite her positive words, she sounded skeptical.

_"Ah."_

There was a silence, and Maya almost closed the phone, but then Mia spoke again. _"Maya's coming tomorrow."_

_"I'll come see him tomorrow for you."_

_"I feel so bad for missing a day. I just don't want Maya to see him like this."_

_"You should take a day off anyways. You don't look like you're feeling so well lately."_

_"I'm fine."_ Mia's tone was clipped, and the recording stopped on that last tense exchange. They had to be talking about Diego Armando.

She couldn't even remember meeting him. The number of gaps emerging in her memory was alarming.

She exited the hospital room, continuing down the hall. As she got closer to the end of the hallway, she could hear something playing. It sounded like some talk-radio station.

A radio! The power was out here, so it had be running on battery power! She ran towards it, finding it in a chair.

It took her more time to find the battery slot, as she was going by feel, but eventually she tipped the batteries into her hand. A quick moment later and she was turning on her flashlight.

She had light again!

Unfortunately, she was without a guide now, and she had no clue where she was supposed to go next. She tried to go down the stairs only to find a ton of furniture had been piled in the way, so she went back up to the third floor, peeking around the corner for Dahlia. Her demonic cousin was absent, much to her relief, so she walked along the rooms, stopping at the door to the cafeteria when her phone vibrated once.

She opened the door, entering, and her phone vibrated again, this time not stopping.

Maya pressed the Record button, wondering what she was about to hear.

_"I don't think you're telling the truth!" _ A rare Mia moment—Maya could hear the frustration in her older sister's voice.

_"Calm down, kitten."_ It was that man's voice—Diego Armando!

_"How can you be so calm? She's lying to our faces!"_

_"I—I'm not lying_." That was Dahlia at her worst—Mia had told her about the innocent facade their cousin adopted whenever she was in trouble. _"I don't know why you won't believe me!"_

_"Because you're lying. But it's time to take a deep breathe. We've been arguing so long that my coffee's gone cold."_

_"Do you ever think of anything besides your coffee?"_ Mia asked.

_"Of course. I'll be right back after I get a new cup. Play nice, kittens." _There was the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, then a door opening and closing.

_"Just come clean now, Dahlia."_

_"You can't save him, you know."_ Maya recognized that tone as the same airy voice she'd used when she'd told Maya, "You're going to see her jump."

_"What are you talking about?"_

A giggle. _"You'll see. Now, back to my supposed guilt. Where's your proof?"_

_"You drove Terry Fowles to his death before he could reveal it!"_

_"And where's your proof of that?"_

The door opened and closed again. _"Now, where were we?"_ Diego asked.

_"Mr. Armando, you don't look so well,"_ Dahlia said sweetly.

_"That's what happens when I don't get my allotted cups of coffee. I'm one behind." _There was a pause, a gulp, and then the sound of ceramic being set on the table. _"Again, let's get back to business. Calm down, kitten; I'm fi—"_ There was a sudden commotion, with lots of sounds. Ceramic shattering, the chair being pushed back, masculine-sounding groaning, and above all of it—

_"DIEGO!"_ Mia screamed.

The recording cut off.

What had she just heard? Had Dahlia attacked _him_? Unlikely, considering their sizes. He would have been able to bat her off with ease. Had _he_ attacked Dahlia? But he was the one telling Mia to calm down!

What was going on here?

She exited the room, only to stop suddenly when she saw Athena walking down the hallway with a pink-haired man. They were talking, though their conversation was faint, and Maya could hear just snippets of it.

"Well, Director Kuromiya, it's time for you to get back to your, ahem, office now," Athena was saying.

He shook his head. "I need an office phone. And a computer. I can't be an," he cut off for a giggle, "effective director without these things."

"We'll have to see about getting you one then."

He said something back, but he was getting too far away for her to hear, so she followed them to the elevator, pausing when they disappeared through it and then, almost jokingly, trying to open it. To her surprise, the door slid about an inch and a half open, though it opened to one of those purple abysses.

"EDGEYPOO!" Something dropped down in front of her vision, and she gasped, careening back as she saw the old hag in red again hanging upside down from the elevator. This time, she didn't stick around, but rather, disappeared as soon as she'd given Maya a disapproving glare. Maya clutched at her chest, trying to catch her breath.

A phone started ringing, and she ran towards the sound, realizing it had to be in the office Adrian had led her to the first time. Maya picked up the phone as soon as she could hear it, hoping to hear Pearl's voice from the desk phone.

_"Open an ER! Patient's BP is dropping!"_

_"She's coding!"_

_"We need to get her warmed up ASAP!"_

_"She's losing too much blood! Hurry!"_

_"Status!"_

_"She's hypothermic. Broken ribs and a knife through her abdomen."_

_"How long?"_

_"An hour, at least. They found her at the top of Hazakura Mountain."_

_"ER Two. Go."_

There wasn't much question as to who they were talking about, after the doctor's evaluation she had picked up the first time in the hospital. Maya pressed her hand to her stomach again, half-expecting to see a knife in it.

There was a flash of light, blinding her, but when she opened her eyes, Adrian was right in front of her, a business card on the table between them. Maya picked it up with trembling fingers.

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><p><em>Director Kuromiya — 997-447-619<em>

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><p>What kind of business card was this? It was written in crayon, an almost-unrecognizable stethoscope drawn next to the number.<p>

Still, it was a phone number. Maya pulled out her phone and dialed.

_997-447-619._

Maya closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was in an almost identical office, the only difference being that the Steel Samurai toy was gone. A cell phone was ringing, and Maya quickly identified the source as one of the desk drawers. She pulled it open. A ghost lunged out at her, knocking her back. "THIS IS MY HOSPITAL, I SWEAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" he was screaming, his hands twitching as he took hold of her shoulders. "IT'S MIIIIIIIIINE!"

Maya screeched, quickly punching him. He fell back, vanishing. His words, "it is, I swear," lingered in the air even after he left.

The door clicked and swung open slowly, and Maya grabbed the now-silent cell phone, checking for messages again and finding none, before exiting.

She recognized the first floor almost immediately. The vending machine was at the opposite corner, and the entrance to the hospital was on her right. The tiny waiting area was empty, and she sat down for a moment, one hand on her heart as she glanced upwards.

The fluorescent lights, innocuous until now, brought on memories. Loud voices echoed around her, speaking in medical jargon quicker than she could understand. Her gaze, blurred by something that wasn't quite tears, watching as lights went by, almost looking like the same light over and over as if she were stuck in a loop.

She had been here. She remembered this hospital somehow. She'd been semi-conscious as they'd rushed her to the ER, Nick in the ambulance with her, but she hadn't been able to see his expression clearly. Maybe it hadn't been Nick at all, but someone with similarly shaped hair and a blue suit.

No, she was certain it was him. She could remember him letting go of her hand and his voice as he whispered, "I'm so sorry, Maya," before she was wheeled into the hospital.

How had she forgotten this? And why couldn't she remember anything after this?

Had she . . . died?

Her cell phone rang, snapping her out of those thoughts. "Hello?" she said, answering it. She hadn't received a call on her cell phone since the school, if she remembered correctly.

_"Um . . . hello?"_

"Edgeworth!" she said, pleasantly surprised.

There was a pause. "_Maya_?" he finally asked.

"What are you calling for? Not that I didn't want you to call or anything, but, uh, how did you get this number?" She was so relieved to hear Edgeworth's voice that she was rambling, but she couldn't have cared less. He was still alive (or so she assumed), which meant that he could still help her.

And he could still get out.

He cleared his throat. _"I was trying to transport back to the hospital. No matter. I'm actually glad I got ahold of you."_

"You are?" Edgeworth was happy to hear from her? And he was _admitting _it? Something wasn't quite right.

_"Yes. Listen to me very carefully. The ghosts at Kuromiya Hospital are more dangerous than anywhere else I've been. I think that the hospital might be the origin point for all of this."_

"Origin point?" Maya asked, confused.

_"The place where everything converges. The hospital has to be the source of all of this."_

"Source? What do you mean?"

_"You remember Hazakura Temple? You may find that, after that incident, Pearl—AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_ Edgeworth gave out such a shrill shriek that Maya dropped the phone, diving for it a moment later. Her stomach dropped, and she fumbled around until she had the phone oriented correctly before pressing it to her ear.

"Edgeworth?" she asked.

The other line was silent.

She left it for a minute or two, hoping that Edgeworth would pick it up again and resume their conversation (hopefully also informing her that he had developed a fear of spiders or something equally harmless and that was what had caused him to flip out), but nothing changed.

Something could be killing Edgeworth this moment.

All because she had the phone he had tried to transport to.

She pressed a hand to her mouth, trying not to fall apart now. Had this all been her fault? Was she all alone now?

Was there no one left to help her?

"I wonder what's happening to him right now?" The sentence was completed with the familiar girlish giggle, and Maya shut the phone, turning towards the voice.

"I take it you know," she said cautiously.

Dahlia giggled again. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"What do you want, Dahlia?"

The ethereal beauty shrugged, a piece of hair falling over her shoulder delicately. "Do you know what's happened yet? Do you know about the tragedy?"

"You mean Hazakura Temple? Yes."

But Dahlia merely laughed. "Oh, Maya. You still don't get it, do you? But that's okay. You're going to run out of time again."

"Run out of time to do what?" she demanded.

Hands emerged from the floor again, moaning the familiar, "our sweet Dahlia," but Maya knew what to do this time, turning and running down the hallway before one could grab her ankle.

"Tick tock," Dahlia said, suddenly appearing in front of the spirit medium. Once again, she flashed with massive spiritual energy, enough to make Maya's vision turn red. Maya screamed, throwing her body to one side in order to avoid the she-devil and continuing to run. "Tick tock. Tick. _Tock._"

At the final word, the butterflies that usually fluttered around Dahlia flamed, flying towards Maya like homing missiles. She ducked her head, throwing herself behind the counter of the nurse's station.

"Oh, Maya. Time. Is. Running. Out," Dahlia said softly. Maya could see her toned calves and butterfly-adorned shoes before they began to fade. They were almost completely gone when she heard the whispered words. "Tick tock."

Maya held her knees to her chest, trembling. What had just happened? What had Dahlia meant by the tragedy that had happened? What was she running out of time for?

She got to her feet, her knees feeling shaky, and froze. Across from her, sitting in a chair in the waiting area with her head bowed, was Dahlia. She was staring at her hands, the V-shaped braids extending from her widow's peak fully visible. Maya gasped, but Dahlia didn't react.

Now was not the time to find out why.

With exaggerated slowness, she crept around the corner of the desk, only relaxing when there was a wall between them. She sighed, closing her eyes in triumph, only to scream when she turned. Adrian was inches away, her miserable expression unchanged. Maya crowded back as the nurse ran past her, towards the T. "No, don't let me be too late!" she was screaming.

She turned the corner, jabbing at the elevator button and entering what looked like a closed door, Something hit the floor and jangled as she disappeared.

It was a key. Maya turned it, orienting the tag so she could read it. "Nurse's Station," it had etched on it.

There were only three possibilities as to where the key could unlock. Trying to ignore Dahlia, who still wasn't responding, she rounded the L-shaped desk, shining the flashlight on the plaque next to the door.

"Director 's Office."

Only two more floors to check then. She pulled out the cell phone, dialing Adrian's number.

_997-116-286._

When she opened her eyes again, she was in the hallway of the second floor. Adrian's cell phone was on the floor next to her, and she picked it up, before walking to the room in the same location as the director's office, just a floor up.

Bingo. The Nurse's Station.

She tried to turn the knob only to find out that it was indeed locked. Carefully, she took the key from the pocket of her robe, inserting it into the lock and turning. The door opened and she sighed in relief, stepping into the office.

There was a book sitting exactly where Adrian had led her the first time.

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><p><em>Maya Fey was brought into the hospital today. Things seem very grim for everyone, but especially for little Pearl. She won't talk to anyone. I know Maya and Pearl are close, so this must be very hard for her. Still, she smiled a little when I brought her a cookie from the cafeteria, so I'm sure she must just be in shock after what happened.<em>

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><p><em>Pearl's mot<em>_her is out on bail. It's the happiest I've seen Pearl since all of this started. Morgan even gave her a cell phone so that she could call whenever she wanted. She's going back to Kurain Village, but Pearl wants to stay here with Mr. Wright at least until Maya wakes up._

_Maya is in a medically-induced coma. We're keeping her sedated until her brain activity regulates again, though the doctor seems a bit skeptical._

* * *

><p><em>Pearl seems really happy to talk to Morgan. She does it a lot these days, which is nice. She was very quiet before, but now she's talking to everyone again. I've been teaching her how to send text messages too.<em>

_Maya is still sedated. The doctor is starting to worry about her brain activity._

* * *

><p><em>Pearl broke the cell phone today. She threw it out the window, which seems very unlike her. Then again, ever since she broke it, she's been so upset that she won't leave Maya's side. I wonder what happened. I offered Pearl some time on the hospital phones, but the policy is only twenty minutes per night. She hasn't taken me up on the offer yet though, so she must still be angry about whatever happened.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Pearl finally agreed to call her mother on the hospital phone, but Morgan hasn't answered. I tried calling her to tell her that Maya's condition is improving, but I had to leave a voicemail. Hopefully the phone lines are down or something—Pearl told me that cell service in Kurain Village is brand new, so perhaps some work is getting done. If she doesn't pick up in a few days, I'll have to write her a letter.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Pearl still won't say much to anyone. I hope it's just worry for her mother and cousin that's making her so quiet.<em>

_They've decided Maya's condition is stable enough to try to wake her from her coma. I had expected Pearl to be ecstatic about the news—everyone else was—but if anything, she seems more solemn than before. Mr. Wright told me she refused to go to the hospital to visit today. I'm hoping whatever is going on with the girl is going to get better soon._

* * *

><p><em>I think Pearl was the one who did this to Maya.<em>

_I don't know exactly what happened, or even why, but there are some things that don't quite add up. There are lacerations on Pearl's arms that match the ones on Maya's. There's also been this strange air about her lately, a strange look in her eye that I didn't recognize as guilt until I thought about Celeste the other day and looked at myself in the mirror._

_She's carrying around some sort of guilt when it comes to Maya._

_I hope that I'm wrong. But then again, after hearing a bit of Pearl's fight with Morgan over the phone the other day, well . . ._

_I'm pretty sure that I'm right._

* * *

><p><em>Maya's condition has worsened. The doctors can't bring her out of the coma yet, and no one is taking the news well, but Pearl seems to be taking it the worst. She's started visiting Maya again, but she hasn't stopped sobbing since she arrived hours ago. If I was right in my last note, I think I know why.<em>

_This has turned into such a tragedy._

* * *

><p><em>Pearl hasn't been at the hospital for the last few days. Mr. Wright says she isn't sleeping or eating, just crying. I tried contacting Morgan again, but to no avail, so I sent a letter to Kurain Village in the hopes that she might receive it. Unfortunately, when I contacted the Mystic Althea on Maya's Emergency Contact List, she told me that Morgan has been missing for several days now.<em>

_Maya's condition has begun to improve again, so the doctors are talking about waking her. Hopefully she has some light to shine upon everything that's happened._

_I don't think that Pearl can take much more of this._

* * *

><p><em>It's all my fault.<em>

_Nurse Cykes, Maya's nurse on the night shift, confided in me today what she had thought happened—well, now, what she knew had happened. She and Pearl had a therapy session last night; Nurse Cykes is good at that kind of stuff. Anyways, Pearl told her everything she knew, and Nurse Cykes thought it would be a good idea for me to know too. Inside, I knew we shouldn't have been talking about it in the hospital, but it didn't seem too bad, and then Pearl heard us talking, and now she's ignoring both of us. I know we shouldn't have, but I just wanted to help._

_She's ignoring everyone. Now she sits by Maya's bedside silently._

_I don't know what to do._

* * *

><p>Maya's legs suddenly gave out from under her, and she sank to the cold tile floor. What was this? This couldn't be right? No!<p>

It all came back in flashes. The knife, the slender hand holding it. The chocolate brown eyes staring at her, those eyes that she had thought were from the devil.

The devil had light brown hair. Sure, she'd tied it back into braids, but there was no question. As soon as the image came, it stayed, imprinting itself on the back of her eyelids.

Dahlia hadn't been the one holding the knife. Dahlia Hawthorne was dead. Someone had to have channeled her.

And there was only one person on that mountain who had light brown hair.

Pearl had channeled Dahlia.

Pearl had stabbed Maya. Broken her ribs. Left her huddling in the snow, eyes screwed shut as if it would warm her up.

The one behind everything . . . had been Pearl Fey.

The realization kicked her in the stomach. How could have this happened? Sure, Dahlia was obviously a vengeful spirit, but Pearl was a strong medium. She shouldn't have been able to do anything against Pearl's will.

Still, there was no question. Even though the cold, dispassionate stare and cruel smile curved on the assailant's lips hadn't been Pearl's, the body had been.

That explained everything.

The phone calls she'd picked up randomly, the hatred in Pearl's voice whenever she talked to her mother. She'd been hearing snippets of the conversations Pearl had been having while Maya was hospitalized! Her heart ached for her cousin. There was no way that Pearl could have meant any of it. Maya was still alive, which meant that something inside of Pearl had rebelled. If it had been completely Dahlia, there likely would have been no body left to find.

The room was too small and too warm all of a sudden. Maya felt claustrophobic. She got to her feet, exiting the Nurse's Office after shoving the note in her pocket.

The elevator dinged, and Maya suddenly remembered that Adrian had been going up the elevator on the first floor. There was no way it was just stopping now though, was there?

She couldn't see anything, but she could hear the panicked breathing, and the "No, no, no! Hurry up!"

That was definitely Adrian.

Adrian had led her through the hospital, and if there was something she was so panicked at, it was likely worth knowing.

She had to go up to the third floor.

Maya sprinted down the hall. She was just taking the final step up to the third floor when she saw Adrian run into the Computer Lounge, whimpering the entire way. Throwing the door open, she saw Adrian huddled over the single computer that was on, her form dimmed by the artificial blue light the screen gave out. There were tear tracks down her pale face, and she was pushing her glasses up so she could wipe at her eyes.

"Adrian?" Maya asked, taking a tentative step forward.

"I'm too late," the nurse sobbed.

"Too late for what?" she asked, but Adrian was already fading away, and the only thing that lingered was the sound of her sobs.

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she rounded the table to look at the computer screen. On it was an open email from Pearl, a small paragraph in the body.

* * *

><p><em>It's all my fault. I'm so sorry. For everything. I caused this entire situation, and now it's time for me to pay for what I've done.<em>

* * *

><p>Pay?<p>

Pay for what she'd done?

Oh god, what had happened to—

The memory made her stumble, grabbing onto the desk for support as she remembered the conversation she'd had with Nick after she'd woken up in the hospital.

* * *

><p><em>"You don't look so great,"<em> she'd croaked out, happy to see him nonetheless.

He really didn't. He was wearing a grey hoodie that he seemed to swim in, and the dark circles under his eyes almost looked like bruises. _"Maya . . . I don't know how to say this."_

_"Say what? Honestly, you should look a lot happier than you do right now."_

_"It's Pearl."_

She'd frozen immediately. He never called her Pearl. It was always Pearls; he'd teased once that he'd only call her Pearl when she was eighty-five years old and in a nursing home. _"What happened?"_

_"She—"_ He broke off suddenly, and her heart thudded painfully in her chest.

_"Just tell me what happened to her, Nick!"_

He looked away, and his expression was more miserable than the one he'd been wearing the first time they'd met, where they had both stumbled upon Mia's dead body. _"Maya, Pearl is dead. She jumped off of the roof of the law office."_

_"What?"_ A wave of nausea passed over her. _"No, that can't be right. Not Pearly. No, this all has to be a joke, and it's not funny."_ She'd looked up at him, waiting for his expression to change, but it didn't; she just looked away, his face solemn. _"No. No, I won't accept this! This didn't happen! Not Pearly, not her, she'd never do something like that."_

Her voice had broken on the last phrase, and he'd finally looked up in concern. _"Maya, you just woke up. You need to take it easy—"_

_"No! No, I won't—I can't—No."_ She finally broke down crying, and he'd sat down on the edge of her bed, hugging her gently to avoid injuring her further.

* * *

><p>She sat down in a nearby chair, her eyes wide. Pearl had . . . jumped. She'd committed suicide.<p>

No, not Pearly.

She fought to keep her head up, but everything came crashing down on her. She'd been the cause of everything. She hadn't been able to save Larry, despite the fact that he'd been relying on her. And then Edgeworth, who might be dead at this moment (actually, if she was being honest, he was _probably_ dead) because she'd had the cell phone he'd tried to call. And then there was Diego Armando, who she hadn't seen again, but she'd said she'd help him too, and then he'd disappeared. And Nick.

Everything, all of this . . .

Tears blurred her vision as she stared at the screen, still displaying those four simple sentences.

_It's all my fault._

_I'm so sorry._

_For everything._

_I caused this situation, and now it's time for me to pay for what I've done._

No, Pearly hadn't done anything. If she'd been stronger, if she'd thought faster, she could have prevented what Dahlia had done to her.

Then Pearl would still be alive.

So it wasn't Pearl's fault.

It was Maya's.

She sobbed into her hands. If only she'd been stronger, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe they'd all be sitting around Nick's office a decade later, having burgers and talking about the random developments in their lives.

Like Pearl, Maya would have to pay for what she had done.

* * *

><p><strong>AN ::**

**Melody Canta :: Does the ending feel different to you? Things are happening differently! What's going to happen to Maya? Well, you'll have to wait for Edgeworth to possibly save the day? Can he do it? I'll pass the torch to Shikola so she can answer that question.**

**Shikola Krasno :: Awww poor, clueless Maya. Edgeworth sees Adrian's diary and assumes that the reality of the abyss is screwed up. Maya sees them and believes it's all just a buried memory. Ouch. Of course what Edgeworth saw and did was less of a concern to Dahlia. Kind of sad to see a whole chapter without Missile. . . No wonder it's so depressing. No worries though! Next you'll get to find out what happened to Edgy to make him scream over the phone! In fact, next up is Edgy's last chapter! You're so close!**


	17. The Curse

**Chapter Nine :: The Curse**

The sensation of transporting was getting to be too familiar to Edgeworth now. It wasn't alarming anymore, just daunting, like falling into a brief sleep before being awoken by whatever nasty place he wound up laying on. This time, it was a filthy carpet in a small apartment.

He did his usual flashlight sweep, expecting to find an old fashioned, Japanese-style place like the houses in Kurain Village (which he had only visited once in Phoenix's company), but the apartment was surprisingly modern. The only thing that seemed even remotely Japanese was the folding divider that separated the small living room/bed area from the even smaller dining room/kitchen area.

A small journal was sitting out on the dining room table in the room, so he picked it up and started to read it, praying that it would give him some answers.

* * *

><p><em>After the whole incident at Hazakura Temple, I knew I couldn't stick around. My darling Pearl failed to fully execute the plan and, no doubt, her testimony will lead the authorities right to me. I'm only out on bail, and she thinks that I'm staying at our old house at Kurain village, but I have to run if I'm to stay out of court. It pains me to have to leave my baby again, so I made sure to send her a letter with the number for my new cell phone in it. If I keep changing phones and sending her the new numbers, I should still be able to cover my tracks. An old friend has also agreed to send me any important letters that arrive at my old house. <em>

_I hope that someday, my little Pearl will come to understand that everything I did I did for her._

* * *

><p><em>Pearl made me promise to visit her at the hospital today. She sounded so sad that I just couldn't help myself. I figured that if I wore a good disguise I could at least drop by and see her privately, but then I came across an officer and my heart raced. I knew then that I wouldn't be able to stand up to such pressure, and I can't afford to get caught. I won't end up like my poor Dahlia. Pearl will just have to understand.<em>

* * *

><p><em>I have been doing a great job of wiring money to Pearl to maintain a decent lifestyle for her, but it has become increasingly difficult to find work while on the run, and I can hardly afford to sustain myself, let alone the daughter that I left behind. I'll have to stop wiring her money for now, at least until I start making enough to support myself again. She'll understand. My little Pearl would do anything for her mother, just like I would do anything for her. I just wish that I could tell her that in person. Unfortunately, I don't even have enough money to pay for my phone bills anymore, so my most recent cell phone has been disconnected. I hope she'll be okay.<em>

* * *

><p><em>I started working three jobs in order to get enough money to get by, but after several dizzy spells, I was forced to quit one for the sake of my own health. That means that it will take longer to get money for my baby. I can only hope that she's been okay. It's gotten lonely, not hearing from her, but my Pearl is a good girl. I'm sure she's doing good. She's always managed to handle herself rather well. I only hope that she knows how proud I am of her. Even though she'll never become the head of the Kurain channeling technique, she's still my beautiful daughter and I will always know that she was better than my wretched sister's worthless spawn.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Life on the run has really taken its toll on me. I had to quit another job for my health again, but with such a small income, it's difficult to stay healthy anyways. I haven't been able to talk to my little Pearl in so long. I feel bad, having abandoned her like this. Maybe I went too far. I could have been happy as long as I had her. I didn't have to have such high status within my family as long as I had her. Why couldn't I see that? Now I fear that it's too late to make amends. Oh gods, my poor baby's all alone. What have I done?<em>

* * *

><p><em>I couldn't take it anymore. I went up to the top of the mountains today with the intention of ending my pathetic life. Nothing matters now. I've abandoned my poor Pearl. I don't have anything left to live for, or so I thought. In the end, I couldn't do it. Maybe this is for the best. Now I don't have <em>any_ children holding me back. I just have to give her up entirely. Only then will this torment end. That's what I'll have to do._

* * *

><p><em>I abandoned my past entirely. Now I even have a whole new identity. It's such a refreshing feeling. There's nothing tying me down. I can finally earn an honest living and get by without a care in the world. I should have done this long ago. Soon I'll even be able to afford my own apartment. Then I'll be able to live the life of luxury that I so rightly deserve.<em>

* * *

><p><em>I finally paid off my phone bills today and got a new phone to replace the last one. I couldn't help but think about Pearl when I looked at the old thing. Maybe I should have sent her my newest phone number. Even if she hates me, at least I would be able to hear her voice, but that would restart the self-destructive cycle. I can't look back. I'm a new woman. Pearl will be able to handle herself. She always was good at taking care of herself. I shouldn't worry so much. I deserve better. She'll understand.<em>

* * *

><p>The whole journal was sickening. Just when Edgeworth started to feel somewhat sympathetic for the woman, she turned it around and made herself seem worse than ever. It was infuriating. How could anyone abandon such a sweet little girl and feel a clear conscience afterwards? It was unforgivable.<p>

As he fumed over the journal, something on the floor caught his eye. He picked up the Silver Samurai figure and examined it closely. Moving its arm made a USB drive pop out. "A thumb drive? Why would she need something like this?" He turned it over a few times before finally shining the flashlight at its foot. Written there was the name "Phoenix Wright." "What the hell is Wright's thumb drive doing in Morgan Fey's apartment?" he asked.

A sudden rustling sound snapped Edgeworth back into the moment. He looked at the trash bags sitting out in the kitchen and saw them move as if something alive was inside. It stopped just as suddenly as it started, though, and they remained undisturbed after that. Sitting on the counter above them, however, was a cell phone. Edgeworth picked it up and immediately heard sobbing. He thought about recording the sound, but the sobbing was as clear as day. There was no reason for him to try to filter anything out. Still, it made him nervous.

A small shelf was just to the left of the counter, and another journal was visible inside of a glass case with an interesting trick lock on it. Edgeworth had come face-to-face with many puzzles in his time as a prosecutor, so the lock posed little threat to him and he was able to retrieve the journal inside. It seemed to pick up from where the last one had left off, but the feelings behind it were entirely different. The sobbing continued in the background as he read the final journal entries to himself.

* * *

><p><em>I can't believe it. It hurts too much. My baby, my little Pearl, committed suicide. She killed herself and her horrible mother found out in a newspaper. What is wrong with me? How could I leave her like that? She was so small. So frail. She should have had her mother at her side through everything. I'm so horrible. All three of my children deserved better. I'm the worst. My baby. My poor baby.<em>

* * *

><p><em>I didn't think that I could stoop any lower, but I can't even bring myself to step forward and claim Pearl as my own. If I were to do that then I would have to come out to the public and I'd be arrested immediately. Even after all this, I'm still trying to preserve my own life. I'm a horrible mother. The worst mother ever. Even in death, I've managed to leave my darling all alone. This is all my fault. Why did she have to go? Oh Pearl. Why?<em>

* * *

><p><em>I think I've lost my mind. I haven't been able to work in days and I can't sleep either. I keep seeing her whenever I close my eyes. She looks so angry with me. I apologize, but my words seem to fall on deaf ears. If only she could hear me. I truly wish that I had done better by her. Somehow, a nurse from the hospital that was taking care of Maya managed to track me down and she sent me a letter, begging me to go and help my daughter. Why didn't I acknowledge her? I should have gone back as soon as I got the letter. Instead, I just ignored her and let my baby die. The phone's ringing again. It's not my current phone, but the last phone that I used to talk to her with. It shouldn't be able to ring. It's been disconnected for weeks and it hasn't had a charge in that time either. I just know that it's her calling me. She just wants to talk to her mother. I should answer it. I have to answer it.<em>

_I'm so sorry, Dahlia. I failed you._

* * *

><p>"Dahlia?" She had hardly mentioned Dahlia in the other entries, but it was the last person named in her journal. "Why the sudden change? It just doesn't make any sense!"<p>

Edgeworth closed the journal in frustration and a piece of paper fell out of it. He picked it up and read it over. It was a letter from Adrian that begged Morgan to come back for her daughter. Pearl needed her, but Morgan had still turned her away. What a cold woman. He couldn't help but think that she got what she deserved.

The sobbing suddenly got much louder, making the hair on the back of Edgeworth's neck stand. He didn't think he'd find anymore clues at the apartment, so he figured that it would be best to rendezvous with Missile at the hospital. Then they could go back to Larry's room to try out the thumb drive in the least threatening location. He called the director's phone and waited as it rang.

_"Hello?"_

He was completely caught off guard when someone picked up the other line. "Um. . . Hello?"

_"Edgeworth!"_

It took him a moment to realize just who would talk to him like that. "Maya?"

As soon as he said her name she immediately asked, _"What are you calling for? Not that I didn't want you to call or anything, but, uh, how did you get this number?_"

He cleared his throat to cut in and explained, "I was trying to transport back to the hospital. No matter. I'm actually glad I got ahold of you."

_"You are?"_ She seemed so surprised.

"Yes," he assured her. He chose to get right to the heart of the matter and let her know everything that he could. "Listen to me very carefully. The ghosts at Kuromiya Hospital are more dangerous than anywhere else I've been." He thought back to one of Phoenix's notes and added, "I think that the hospital might be the origin point for all of this."

_"Origin point?"_ Maya asked, confused.

He searched for the right words and ended up telling her, "The place where everything converges. The hospital has to be the source of all of this."

_"Source? What do you mean?"_

What was the gentlest way to explain Pearl's fate according to the Mnemonic Abyss? "You remember Hazakura Temple? You may find that, after that incident, Pearl—AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Morgan Fey appeared right in front of Edgeworth and wrapped both of her hands in his collar. She was surprisingly strong for an old woman, and, with one forceful shake, she managed to force him to drop the phone and threw him back against the counter. "Where the hell did that come from?"

The sobbing continued, but he couldn't see his attacker anywhere. He took a tentative step towards the phone before a pair of ice-cold hands covered his eyes from behind.

"PEARL. MY POOR PEARL!"

Sheer terror gripped at Edgeworth as he stumbled forward blindly, crashing into the table. He pried the hands off of his face and frantically ran to the far end of the apartment before turning around, watching in horror as the evil woman walked right through the table.

"I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE. MY BABY!"

She made her way over to him and got him by his collar again. He fought her off and scrambled over to the far corner of the kitchen. His heart was pounding so hard that breathing was difficult. He gasped and wheezed, praying that she would leave him alone, but when he turned he saw her going through the folding screen just as easily as she passed through the table. She vanished before reaching him, but the sobbing continued and his heart rate only quickened its pace.

The icy hands covered his eyes again and he fell forward in distress, clawing at his face in order to get them off.

"I'M SO SORRY, DAHLIA. I FAILED YOU."

After those last words, Morgan didn't attack him again. Still, Edgeworth stayed on the floor as he tried desperately to catch his breath. His hand accidentally touched the phone that he'd dropped and he heard the sound of numbers being dialed. "What?" He looked at it just in time to recognize the number of his oldest friend as the call went through.

* * *

><p>Before he could make sense of what had happened, Edgeworth woke up in a new location. He pointed his flashlight in all directions, but there was no doubt that he hadn't been there before, at least not while in the Abyss. The place did, however, have a strangely nostalgic feel about it. Like he <em>did<em> know it from the distant past, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Worried about how Maya must have been feeling about being cut off in the middle of their conversation, he looked around for the phone that had brought him to the new location and was shocked to find an old phone with a cracked screen. No matter what button he pushed, it wouldn't turn on. "That can't be good," he mumbled. No phone meant no transporting away. There had to be another phone lying around, he told himself and went about searching the place.

Like Morgan's apartment, this particular location was relatively small. At least there was a small bathroom nearby. When his light reflected off the of the mirror in the room, he decided that it was a good time to take a look at himself.

The bathroom was just a small walk-in toilet with a sink and mirror next to it. Nothing spectacular, but it wasn't as filthy as the others that he had come across in the Abyss and the mirror was as clear as day. His reflection, however, was a bit alarming. His glasses had a small crack in them that must have happened when Morgan covered his eyes, there were red marks on his neck from when Dahlia had attacked him, there was a noticeable bump on the back of his head from when Athena had slammed it into a counter, and his lip was still split from when he had cut it on the stairs at the school. All in all, he looked like a mess.

"Guess I can survive more than I thought," he muttered. "This can't be healthy for a man my age."

_SLAM!_

Edgeworth froze. The door behind him had definitely slammed shut. He swallowed hard and turned slowly only to find that nothing was behind him. He tried the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. "What the hell is going on here?"

_DRIP._

He turned quickly but was only greeted by his own haggard reflection in the mirror.

_DRIP._

He checked the sink, but it was bone dry. There was only one other place with water, so he hesitantly looked over the toilet.

There was something red in the bowl.

_SPLAT._

Something had landed on the back of his neck. He reluctantly touched his hand to the spot and looked at it. Blood. He slowly craned his neck and found the old woman in red hanging out of the air vent above his head.

"EEEDGYYY-POOOOOOOO!"

Edgeworth screamed and fell backwards. The door fell open as he crashed into it and the old woman slithered back into the vent and left no trace behind.

"No more. Oh god, I can't take anymore of this!" Right as he spoke, he heard something click to life. He turned to see that the computer in the room had turned on. There was a request for a password on the screen, but he didn't have the slightest idea what the password might be. Still, he needed to check out the contents of the thumb drive, so he had to get in somehow.

That was when he noticed the picture frame next to the monitor. He picked it up and looked at it carefully. There was no mistaking it; it was a photo of Phoenix Wright and his adopted daughter, Trucy. Edgeworth knew the picture well; he himself had taken it at Trucy's first solo magic show.

He looked around again. Though it was unusually clean, this was the Anything Agency. Actually, in its present state, it looked a lot more like Phoenix's old law office.

That was it. The phone had automatically dialed Phoenix's number, so it had brought Edgeworth to Phoenix's phone. Now he just needed to figure out what Phoenix would use as a password. He tried Trucy, Ace Attorney, Maya, Mia, and any combination of the names and titles, but nothing worked. Frustrated with his friend, Edgeworth picked up the picture again and the frame came unlatched, dropping the photo into his lap. He picked it up and noticed something written on the back. It was another phone number with the name Iris next to it.

Iris.

He had almost forgotten about the good sister. Iris was a stark contrast from her demented twin, Dahlia, so much so that Phoenix had apparently kept her phone number in a secret place. Her number looked strangely familiar as well, and it took him a while to figure out that it was the mystery number that Phoenix had included at the end of the chat.

"Please let this work. . ."

Edgeworth typed her phone number into the computer and hit enter, the desktop pulling up. He hastily pulled out the thumb drive and plugged it in. It contained a single file, a word document with no title. He opened it.

* * *

><p><em>Dahlia Hawthorne was a force that I should have never reckoned with. She was too dangerous. Too strong. I had hoped that death in the Mnemonic Abyss would be a big enough shock to get us out. I thought that maybe, just maybe, the Athena and Apollo that I had seen as ghosts were just after-images and that they had made it out okay. I really prayed that dying had woken them up.<br>_

_But now I know better._

_In a fit of despair, I confronted her. I had tried everything else that I could think of, and there was nothing left to do but let her have what she wanted and hope that it would quell her angry spirit._

_So I let her kill me._

_It didn't change anything. I'm still here. They're still here. I can hear her whispers everywhere and they're driving me crazy. I think that's why Athena's been so violent. She can't help it. She's lost her mind._

_I did learn, though, that we aren't the ones she's after. Dahlia wants Maya. She blames her for everything. If only I had been enough to calm her down. This won't be over until she's gotten what she wants, and what she wants is for Maya to suffer more than anything._

_In death, however, I saw Mia again. She told me that there's still hope. A shock worse than death might actually snap us out of it. But what could be worse than death?_

* * *

><p>Edgeworth covered his mouth. Phoenix had been killed. Athena, Apollo, and Larry had all been killed. They were dead, and they didn't wake up. There was nothing that they could have done to escape, and surely he would soon join them. After that there would be no one left but Maya, and Dahlia would make her suffer. This was what he had been doomed to. He had nothing left to do but wait for someone to show up and kill him.<p>

"EDGEWORTH. . ."

He looked over his shoulder to see Phoenix standing in the middle of the room. The panicked prosecutor stood up hastily and faced his dead friend head on. "Wright, there has to be something you didn't try! If I could just find Maya and explain things to her, maybe we could find a way out. There has to be a number that we haven't tried yet. We can't give up!"

"WE CAN'T CHANGE ANYTHING. . ." the ghostly attorney said slowly. "WE'RE ONLY LAWYERS. . . THIS IS BEYOND OUR CONTROL. . ."

Edgeworth shook his head and pleaded, "This can't be it! You have a daughter, Phoenix! What will Trucy do without you there to protect her? She's already lost one father. You can't let her lose another."

Phoenix's face suddenly changed. Edgeworth had hoped that the mentioning of his daughter would snap him out of it, but instead the ghostly man started grinning. "IT'S OKAY, MILES. . . I'M GLAD YOU'RE HERE. . . IF I HAVE TO BE STUCK IN THIS ABYSS FOREVER, AT LEAST I'LL BE ABLE TO ENJOY MYSELF."

That caught Edgeworth completely off guard. "W-what are you saying?"

Phoenix approached swiftly and backed Edgeworth into the corner by the desk before slowly forcing the head prosecutor's jacket off. "WE CAN BE. . . PARTNERS AGAIN. . ."

"Partners in _law_, maybe, but this?" Edgeworth moved to push Phoenix away, but his hands went right through his friend's ethereal form. "What?"

Phoenix shoved Edgeworth back and leaned in ever closer to his face. "BE MY PARTNER, MILES. . ."

"S-stop! Unhand me! P-please! Just think about this!" Hands as cold as death started to brush against Edgeworth's cheek as Phoenix's lips drew ever closer. "Stop! Please! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

* * *

><p>"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"<p>

Edgeworth awoke with a shock. His heart felt like it was trying to jump out of his chest. The place where he had woken up was well lit and, for once, he was on a bed. He checked his jacket and was relieved to find that he was still wearing it , but his pockets were empty of everything but his car keys, his own cell phone, and the black magatama.

"Could it be?" he asked in disbelief.

He looked around the room. It was, without a doubt, Phoenix's bedroom at the Wright Anything Agency.

Before Edgeworth could really revel in the safety of the world that he knew so well, he heard something right next to him.

"Mmmmnnn. . . Miles. . ."

He turned his head mechanically and saw that, sleeping right next to him on the bed, was Phoenix Wright. The man was smiling and hugging his pillow.

Without a moment's hesitation, Edgeworth shoved his old friend right off of the bed.

"OWWWW! What was that for?" Phoenix mumbled as he sat up and rubbed his head. He looked up at Edgeworth's crazed eyes and flinched. "Oh. Uh. I can explain."

"I don't want your filthy explanations," Edgeworth growled. His killing intent seemed to have an entity of its own.

"AAAAIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!"

The men dropped the subject there and ran out to the common room only to gasp and stop. Simon Blackquill was crouched over Athena, who had apparently screamed at the sight of him, and now he was looking right at them with his raccoon-like eyes and his long hair falling over his shoulders. "He's scary in any world," Phoenix muttered.

"Y-y-you're alive?" Athena whimpered, getting him to look back at her. "You're r-r-really alive?"

Blackquill stood upright and helped her to her feet while reminding her, "Of course I am. I have you to thank for that, remember?"

"You're alive!" She tackled him right back down to the floor and kept her arms wrapped around his neck. "Thank god! I thought that they. . . I thought that you. . ." She started crying and Blackquill awkwardly rubbed her back to calm her down.

"It was simply a nightmare," he assured her.

"Some nightmare," Apollo mumbled as he ran his hand over his little hair antennae. "I mean, I had one too."

"Polly!" Trucy threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. "You're awake! You're finally awake!"

Apollo peeled her off and brought up, "Actually, a part of me was kind of scared that I wouldn't wake up. That Dahlia girl killed me, but I was still trapped in that awful place."

Athena finally let go of Blackquill only to look back at Apollo and exclaim, "She got to me too. It was so awful. She. . ." Athena trailed off and Widget's face changed from happy to scared.

"Hang on. Just what's going on here?" Apollo stood up and pointed at her. "Your dream sounds really similar to mine. Did you see Phoenix too?"

"Yeah! He tried to calm me down and explain that it wasn't really a dream!"

The duo looked to their mentor, who waved his hands in front of himself defensively. "I was just trying to help!" Phoenix straightened out and smiled. "It's so good to see you alive, though. . . When did Blackquill get here?"

Blackquill found a rubber band in his pocket and used it to tie his hair back. "I realized that I said some harsh things to Cykes-dono yesterday, so I stopped by to make amends. You can imagine my surprise when I found the little Wright crying as she let me in. You were all out cold. We tried to wake you, but nothing seemed to work. I was. . . worried."

"UUUWAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Everyone jumped when Larry snapped awake screaming. He looked around frantically before diving after Edgeworth and clinging to his leg. "Edgyyyyy! Why didn't you save meeeee?"

"Get off of me!" Edgeworth kicked him off and Larry fell on his butt confused.

"Wait. The lights are on. I can think straight. You're still a jerk! I'M ALIIIIIIIVE!" He got up and hugged Edgeworth only to get forcefully shoved away. "I had the worst nightmare! There was a pretty lady and she was coming right at me and all of these hands reached towards me and smothered me!"

"You too?" Apollo and Athena said simultaneously.

"Whoa. Have you guys been practicing that?" Larry asked, looking between them.

Phoenix laughed and crossed his arms. "It's so good to see that everyone's okay," he breathed.

Trucy cleared her throat, having been looking around for the last few minutes. "Actually, I may have fallen asleep for a bit before Mr. Blackquill got here and . . . well, uh, I don't know where Maya went."

"WHAT?" Everyone but Blackquill and Trucy was in unison. They all went about searching the agency, but there was no sign of her. She had really disappeared.

Edgeworth was the first one to come up with a solution. He pulled out his cell phone and called Maya's number. Something on the messy couch started ringing, so the groaned and hung up. Then it hit him. He dialed the hospital director's phone number from memory and hit send. The other line rang only once before someone picked up the other line.

_"Hello?"_

"Maya?" His body went cold when she answered. How could she actually answer that phone? "Maya, can you hear me?"

_"Edgeworth? Oh god, no, they got you too?"_ He could hear her choking up on the other line.

"What?" That didn't make sense. "No, Maya, you have to listen to me! Where are you right now?" It was impossible to hide the desperation in his voice, and everyone got as close to him as they could, almost as if they were trying to hear Maya's voice over the phone.

_"I'm so scared. This is all my fault; Pearly, s-she-"_

Edgeworth realized that she must have fallen for the horrible reality of the Abyss. He couldn't let her despair over it. It was all a horrible lie. So he tried to assure her, "Pearl will be fine! Just follow my directions, okay?"

_". . .O-okay. I can see_ _you."_ Again, Edgeworth was filled with fear. How could she see him? Had she misinterpreted his words?_ "I just need you to lead me to her. Please, Mr. Edgeworth, I-I know I'm asking a lot, but I can't lose her, I can't lose her, I just can't."_ He could hear her crying on the other line. He had to get through to her somehow. He had to make her understand.

"Maya, you have to listen to me! There's a number we haven't tried. You have to call Iris! Do you understand me? Call Iris!" He was yelling at the phone, emotions barely in check. Too much had happened. This was unnatural. It had to end. She just had to do as he told her.

_"I. . . hear. . . well. . . I'm. . . follow you. . . don't make it. . . sorry. . ."_

"No. Nononono!"

The other line went dead and that was that. Edgeworth closed his phone slowly and swallowed hard. "The phone cut out," he said gravely. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Everyone had already started assuming the worst. It was awful. All hope was lost. What more could they do?

"YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP!"

Edgeworth's heart stopped. "Did everyone hear that?"

"YIP YIP YIP!"

He ran to the door and threw it open to find a familiar little Pomeranian barked and ran around his feet. "Missile! You're here! You're alive!" He picked the dog up and looked right into his beady eyes as he asked, "Do you know where Maya went? Um, Miss Hamburgers! Did you see her?"

"Boooooooy if that isn't just the strangest thing I ever saw."

Edgeworth had somehow managed to completely ignore the man at the door.

Phoenix hurried over to the man and apologized. "Sorry, Inspector Cabanela. It's been a weird morning."

The man did a strange, disco-dance into the office before saying, "I'll say, man. Missile and I were just heading out for a walk when this girl in the weirdest looking outfit passed by us on the stairs. Missile started barking up a storm when he saw her. I thought he'd stop, but when we reached your floor he started barking all over again." Cabanela put a hand on his hip and looked at the dog as Edgeworth set him down. "Never seen the little guy act so weird."

Suddenly the buzzer for the office went off. Someone was at the building's main door, trying to get in.

"That could be her!" Trucy piped!

Everyone hurried out of the agency and as they started to head down the stairs after Maya, Phoenix noticed Missile heading up instead. Cabanela hadn't mentioned which direction the girl had been going on the stairs, so he took a gamble and followed the little dog as fast as his legs could carry him. "Hang on, Maya. I'm coming!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN ::  
><strong>

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**And with this I bid Adieu to my time in this story with Edgeworth. We had a good run. . . Lots of running. . . And panicking, and arguing with dead people, and Missile. Ahhh Missile. I think Edgeworth needs a Missile in his life.**

**Oh, and about Missile. Some of you readers may have occasionally wondered if we completely changed the dog from Ace Attorney (the one Gumshoe wanted to lend Phoenix). As mentioned before, Missile is from his own game: Ghost Trick. As for the strange, dancing inspector who seems to own Missile, he's also a prominent character in Ghost Trick. For sake of giving Edgy closure with his favorite furry companion (and just because Melody and I LOVE Missile), I chose to make the groovy inspector live in the same building as Phoenix's agency. And hey, it's all Capcom so anything's possible, right?**

**Melody Canta ::**

**WE'RE ALMOST THERE!**

**I have a chapter with Maya left (which will be updated in roughly 24 hours; all of the chapters have now been written and mostly beta-ed, and so each will go up 24 hours from each other), and then we have the epilogue. Everyone else got out; is Maya going to as well? Or is she going to be a stain on the asphalt again (probably _not_ the way to phrase that, buuuuuuuut . . .)?**

**I love the addition of Cabanela (I also love the idea that Cabanela and Nick are neighbors; new headcanon accepted) and good ol' Missile (who has now taken over our Story Cover because I'm in love with that dog). Hopefully the last part with Edgeworth in the abyss isn't that bad (it made my skin crawl, but believe me, it used to be WORSE), and we have taken that scene very closely from the Calling. This is really the final chapter that is going to be following it closely; the Maya chapter is mostly my engineering, since I've changed the ending of the game. **

**Anyways, I'll meet you all in the next chapter!**


	18. The Bond

**NOTE: Two chapters have been posted very recently! Chapter Nine was posted yesterday, so if you missed that one, read it first!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Ten :: The Bond<strong>

Maya had been sitting in the chair for a while now. Five, ten, twenty minutes had passed. She could hear Adrian's sobbing outside the door, but she couldn't move. The computer had fallen asleep, but she could see Pearl's message as if it had been burned beneath her eyelids.

_It's all my fault. I'm so sorry. For everything. I caused this entire situation, and now it's time for me to pay for what I've done._

Not Pearly. How could this have happened? Why hadn't anyone stopped her? Nick, Trucy, Apollo, anyone! Why hadn't they stopped her?

And why hadn't Maya been strong enough to wake up in time? She put a hand to her face, almost surprised to find her cheeks dry. She was as much to blame as anyone else, maybe even more.

The door flew open suddenly, and the unexpected motion was a jolt to her system. She couldn't just sit here and mourn. What if Pearl wasn't dead yet? What if Maya was getting a second chance? No matter how small the chance was, she couldn't risk it. What if Mia had been leading her so she could correct her mistake?

Her phone rang in her hand, and she flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Maya?" She recognized Edgeworth's voice, but it was like the call was coming from inside of a tunnel with the amount of white noise in the background. That being said, there was a desperation in his voice that she hadn't heard in years. "Maya, can you hear me?"

"Edgeworth?" She was talking to him on the phone, but something was wrong, she could tell. The next moment, she could see him cross in front of the door, heading back towards the stairway. He was colorless, and shone with the white aura reserved only for ghosts. "Oh god, no, they got you too?" Her throat seized up, the tears finally beginning to trickle down her face. She was the last one standing. If Dahlia had gotten to Edgeworth, there was no way she would survive.

"What? No, Maya, you have to listen to me! Where are you right now?"

She was barely listening. "I'm so scared. This is all my fault; Pearly, s-she-"

"Pearl will be fine! Just follow my directions, okay?"

She took a deep breath. "O-okay. I can see you. I just need you to lead me to her. Please, Mr. Edgeworth, I-I know I'm asking a lot, but I can't lose her, I can't lose her, I just can't." She broke down into sobs, and there was silence on the line. Maybe she really was asking too much of him. Maybe he wouldn't help her after all.

The next minute, however, she could hear his voice. He was trying to say something, but the line kept cutting out. "Have to . . . number . . . Iris . . . call . . ." He wasn't making any sense, and the longer they talked, the worse the phone connection was.

"I can't hear you very well, so I'm going to follow you. Thank you, Mr. Edgeworth. And . . . if I don't make it out . . . I'm sorry for being a burden all of these years." The line was quiet long before she'd finished, but once she'd started, she couldn't stop. Her priorities had suddenly shifted away from her own safety. As long as Pearly lived, it didn't matter what happened to her. Dahlia could feed her body to rabid hyenas for all she cared. But Pearly . . .

She got to her feet, tottering out of the computer lab. Edgeworth waited at the stairwell, his back to her. He glanced backwards as she approached and made his way down the stairs. She followed as he proceeded to the first floor, walking down the hall. They were almost to the waiting area when he suddenly disappeared, dropping a piece of paper as he left. Maya hesitated, but picked it up.

* * *

><p><em>Iris - 997-600-184<em>

* * *

><p>A phone number? Why did she need another phone number? Was it to the Wright and Co. Law Offices?<p>

Could she save Pearly?

She swallowed hard. Sitting in the waiting area of the hospital was Pearl with her head bowed, looking at her hands. She was still alive, she had to be! "Pearly!" she called out, bounding over to the girl, but Pearl only shook her head, stood, and started walking towards the stairs.

Dread built up in Maya. Logically, she knew that this was impossible. Pearl couldn't kill herself here; they weren't even at the right place. Still, there was something inside of her rebelling, as if she knew how this was going to end even before seeing it happen. "Pearly! Wait, stop!"

"Miss Burgers!" Missile yelped, coming out of what seemed like nowhere, nipping at her heels and whimpering, but her vision had turned red, spiritual power encompassing everything. She wanted to turn Pearl around by force, wanted to rip her out from this crazy reality, but doing so would tear her apart inside out.

"Pearl!" she shouted, following Pearl up the stairs. The younger girl was going at a nice clip, springing up the two flights of stairs, and Maya was barely keeping up. "Pearl!" She ignored Missile, who had taken up residence trying to bite her shoe off her foot and had succeeded to the point where he had broken one of the sandal straps and was now sitting three steps behind her.

"Iris!" the little dog howled as Maya took the final step up to the third floor and Pearl had opened the door to Room 302. "The nice lady says to call Iris!"

At the name, Maya froze. _Iris_. Who was Iris, and why did her name sound so familiar? Was this it? Was this the secret to saving Pearly?

She pulled out her phone while still chasing after Pearl. Room 302's door was wide open, and inside was the roof of Wright and Co. Law Offices.

"How?" she asked, but there was no time to waste. Quickly, she dialed Iris's number. The call had barely picked up when she felt a strange tingling feeling starting in her fingertips and darting up to her elbows, her shoulders, her face. She blinked and suddenly, Pearl was no longer on the edge of the building, but Dahlia. No, what had happened to Pearl? Had she already fallen? Had Dahlia pushed her? "PEARL!" she shouted, running towards the edge, ignoring the growing smirk on Dahlia's face.

"MAYA!" someone screamed, and a moment later, another woman appeared next to Dahlia, making Maya's steps falter.

* * *

><p>Phoenix panted. That tiny little dog was faster than he looked, and he'd just run up four flights of stairs. "Please let this have been the right thing to do," he murmured under his breath, turning the corner to the open door.<p>

_No_.

"PEARL!" Maya shouted, running at the edge of the building. She wasn't stopping, shouting for her cousin and running full steam. At this rate, she was going to . . .

And he suddenly realized Dahlia's plan.

"MAYA!" he bellowed, sprinting after her. She was too close to the edge; he wasn't going to stop her in time. She stepped over the edge, and he reached out, stretching as far as he could to try to stop her.

His arm was just long enough. He grabbed her wrist just as she tried to throw herself over the edge. His own momentum carried them forward, and for the briefest moment, he wondered if they were both going to tumble over the edge. And then a second later, he felt a tug at his pantleg, pulling him backwards. The movement was just enough so he could gain his footing, pulling them both back. He rocked back on his heels, cradling Maya against his chest. "Come on, Maya, wake up. The rest of us are waiting for you."

* * *

><p>It was like being yanked from a dream. One moment, she was sprinting towards the edge of the rooftop, and the next, she didn't know where she was. Her world shifted, and it was like she was flying and yet stationary at the same time. All around her looked like the abyss that had been behind doors, the ones that the cat had pointed out. Standing in front of her, looking as serene as always, was who she now remembered as Iris, Dahlia's twin sister. "You've done it," she said, smiling brightly. "You all got out!" She looked happy, but Maya merely blinked, confused.<p>

"What are you talking about?"

"Dahlia, my sister, last time she killed you all. But this time, everyone did their job. You're the last one here." She suddenly sobered, her expression becoming serious. "We need to get you out of here as well."

"How? And Pearly-"

Iris smiled again. "She's fine. That was all an illusion created by Dahlia."

The vices surrounding Maya's chest suddenly dropped, leaving her breathless and overwhelmed with emotion. "She's okay?" The abyss began to fade, images flickering behind it. The rooftop was coming back into focus, colors shining through the shades of purple and black. "She's absolutely fine?"

Iris nodded, taking a single step forward and pulling her cousin into a hug. "The others are waiting for you. Go on, Maya, wake up."

Everything seemed to dissolve into a bright white light, blinding her. She tightened her grip on Iris, but it was strange. The soft fleece of the Hazakura Temple robes weren't there; instead, it was a light wool. Iris somehow seemed bigger too. She slowly opened her eyes, half-surprised that she had shut them, and came face-to-face with a blue suit jacket.

"Nick?" she asked, her voice shaking.

He stiffened for only a second before pushing her away and taking her face in his hands. "Maya? What happened? Are you okay?" He looked visibly panicked, she realized, and she blinked, looking around. They were on the roof, much closer to the edge than she really wanted to be, considering the whole Pearl thing, and the sun was bathing the world in hues of gold and red.

"Is Pearly okay?" she asked, clearing her throat.

"Pearls?" he asked, looking concerned before suddenly realizing what had happened. "Yes! Pearl is fine. I'm not worried about her. You just tried to run off a building."

"What? No, I didn't!" She glanced over the edge, realizing there were a lot of familiar faces down there. "I didn't . . . did I?" The last thing she had done before having that surreal conversation with Iris (which she now questioned even having) was run across the roof to try to stop Pearl. But it hadn't been Pearl, it had been Dahlia, and she'd looked happy about the whole thing, and . . .

"My head hurts," she complained, rubbing at her eyes.

Phoenix laughed, pulling her in for another hug before pushing her towards the stairs. "Let's get you some aspirin."

"I think it might be from hunger. A burger sounds like a better choice!"

Suddenly, he was laughing, harder than she'd ever seen him laugh, as he dragged his hands down his face. "A burger too," he said once he'd composed himself.

She cocked an eyebrow. "Nick, you're weirder than normal today."

"Well, Maya, it's been a weirder than normal morning."

* * *

><p>The entire group met back up at the Wright Anything Agency, as Apollo explained that they'd seen Maya on the edge of the roof and tried to run up the stairs after her.<p>

"I didn't actually try to run off the building," Maya protested, taking another sip of water. She had her free arm wrapped around Pearl's shoulders, and it was unlikely she would let go anytime soon. "Nick's just being dramatic."

"But then I don't get it. What actually happened?" Athena asked. "The rest of us woke up all together; only Maya was affected outside of that."

Maya looked around the room. "What about Mr. Armando?"

Phoenix did a double-take. "You saw Godot?"

She nodded. "He was alive, just like Edgeworth, Larry, and I."

"I would not fret," Blackquill said. He'd been silent for most of the conversation, but he now spoke up to reassure her. "There isn't much he could do to himself inside of a prison cell."

"But I still don't get what happened! Was all of that real? Not real?" Athena asked, her hand pressed over her mouth.

"Well, it couldn't have been _that_ real, since the rest of us are all alive still. But that Dahlia woman . . ." Apollo shuddered.

Phoenix looked to Pearl. "Mia might know something."

The younger spirit medium nodded, closing her eyes. After a moment, her features shifted, morphing into those of the late Mia Fey. A giant smile appeared on her face as she looked around the room. "I knew you all could do it," she said proudly, pressing a kiss to the side of Maya's head.

"What happened?" Phoenix asked. "Do you know?"

Mia nodded. "I know the basics, anyways. Harry, do you know what happened to the magatama you received in the mail?"

"Huh? Me?" Larry asked, surprised when she was looking at him. He rifled through his pockets, standing up to check his back ones. "Hey, it's gone."

"Because I took it," Edgeworth said. He put his hand into his pocket, surprised when little shards of black crystal surfaced. "What happened to it?"

"The spiritual power in it is gone. Dahlia was able to pull you into a false spirit world using that."

"But I thought Dahlia didn't have any spiritual power?" Maya asked.

Mia's mouth twisted. "The powers of the dead are a bit harder to explain," she finally said. "Bolstered by what I assume was her hatred, she was able to put that in a magatama and send it to the most trusting of your group."

Everyone's eyes turned to Larry. "What?" he asked. "If a pretty girl sent you something, wouldn't you keep it?"

Phoenix sighed. "But how did she send it? I assume the dead don't have mailboxes."

"Ooh, I know!" Maya said. "She had to have been channeled by someone!" Her shoulders slumped suddenly. "It was Aunt Morgan, wasn't it?"

Mia shrugged. "That I can't say. I don't know who channeled her or why."

"So then, that spirit world we were in," Apollo asked, looking a little bit uncomfortable even saying the words, "spirit world," "was what happened there . . . real?"

"Well, it depends on your definition of the word," Mia said. "It had the possibility of becoming real at any time. The reality inside of the spirit world was a ruse created by Dahlia. Everything you saw in there was her orchestration. On the outside, however, it was possible for you all to be stuck inside of there forever. As long as the black magatama had claimed you, you were not safe. Most of you would have fallen comatose, never to wake again, or at least not until someone had broken the magatama for you. Maya was the key to breaking the magatama."

"Me?" she asked. "But I was the last one to wake up!"

Mia nodded. "You were the final one alive in Dahlia's spirit world, thanks in part to your spiritual energy. Your own spiritual power repelled certain weaker ghosts, but it couldn't protect you from the stronger ones. Dahlia's power in the magatama was weak, so, her final ruse, to get you to fall off the roof of the building, was the gamble. Her power was already fading; the rest of you woke up because her power had weakened so significantly that she released the rest of you from the spirit world, thanks to the Mr. Edgeworth's shock of a fate worse than death. Then, once you called Iris, she was able to enter the spirit world, further draining her powers. Because your spiritual power was constantly fighting back against the fake spirit world, you stayed alive long enough to outlast Dahlia, which, in turn, broke the magatama."

"That's why she kept telling me time was running out?" Maya asked.

"I'm assuming she wanted you to hurry, since she couldn't last much longer."

She shuddered.

"So, wait, just to clarify . . . none of that was real?" Athena asked. "Nothing that we saw there was real?"

Mia nodded. "That's correct."

Her face lit up and she launched herself at Blackquill. "It was all a dream, it was all a dream! Thank goodness, it was all a dream!"

Edgeworth turned away from the scene happening inches from him and looked back at the keeper of the answers. "So, erm . . . Pearl," he said, because spirit channeling could _not_ be real, "what happens now?"

She chuckled. "Now you go on living the rest of your lives. Though, if I could make a suggestion, I might recommend thanking Diego and Iris."

Maya gasped. "So _that_ was real?"

Mia chuckled at her sister's shock. "Isn't that the question? I think it's time for me to go now. Stay safe," she said, hugging her sister once more. She closed her eyes, and Pearl became Pearl once more.

"So, what now?" Larry asked.

Maya put her hands on her hips. "Didn't you hear Mia? We should bring some burgers to Mr. Armando and Iris!"

"Who's paying for that many burgers?" Apollo asked, looking around the room.

Phoenix groaned as she said, "Nick, of course!"

"We could try to make them to cut down the cost," Athena theorized.

Both Apollo and Blackquill shook their heads. "No," they said in unison.

"I don't think they'll let the grill in, to be honest," Phoenix added.

"Small victories," Edgeworth said, and Phoenix grinned at him. Edgeworth scooted a little farther away, putting some space between him at the defense attorney distrustfully.

"Eh, small victories," Phoenix said, shrugging.

* * *

><p><strong>AN ::**

**Melody Canta ::**

**Oh god, this chapter. I do much better when I'm actually throwing people off buildings, obviously. This one was hell to write, for two reasons. One, just sort of wrapping up Dahlia's spirit world was hard, but also, trying to give an explanation for everything that's happened here was hardly easy. But, hey, you didn't come here for the explanation, you came here to make sure everyone ended up okay, right?**

**The final chapter was originally going to be mine, but Shikola wrote such a nice one (and I purposefully led into it) that this will actually be my final chapter. As with all of my fics, I'll be talking a bit about the entire thing, statistics and such in the epilogue. You might find it interesting, you might not. I'll definitely be talking about how this all started, give the insider's opinion on every chapter, so on and so on. I'll also let you all know when you can start expecting a new fic from us (I generally try to post the epilogue of one and the start of another at the same time, but we'll see what happens with this one). The companion piece will likely have its first chapter at the time that the epilogue is posted, so you'll at least have that. We'll be posting to it when we're bored and/or procrastinating on other things, so I wouldn't expect weekly updates or anything after the first few chapters.**

**Anyways, this marks the end of the Maya and Larry chapters, so adieu, everyone, and I'll see you in the Author's Note of the last chapter!**

**(Edit: Eh, I'm a little early for 24 hours, but hey, no problem, ne?)**

**Shikola Krasno ::**

**Ha! So close to the end then I break the stride with an epilogue. Mean, right? No worries, that will be posted rather quickly because it's pretty short. It's just the nice little closure, like the end of an actual Ace Attorney game. I definitely give Melody props for trying to explain all this. I had to set a lot of the Abyss' rules with Phoenix's ever-unhelpful explanations, but tying the plot itself together had to be a pain. Of course, I'm sure you're all happy that nobody _actually _died.**

**The companion piece will be both more comical and much darker than this story, so I'll warn you now. The focus will be the stories of the characters you didn't get much about (Apollo and Athena for sure. Phoenix is a possibility. Maybe some Missile and Sissel for fun?), and what could have happened (alternate deaths, endings, and who knows what else). We'll make sure to mention if a chapter is darker or lighter at the top, in case you're in the mood for something sad or something stupid (and all that falls in between).**

**So yeah! Epilogue is mine! Time to put a neat little bow on this baby! Hope you all enjoyed it!**


	19. Turnabout Reunion

**Have you read the most recent chapters? This is the end; most likely you're looking for Chapter Nine! If you've read those, then read ahead.**

* * *

><p><strong>Final Epilogue :: Turnabout Reunion<strong>

Godot woke with a start. He opened his eyes to pure darkness and started to believe that that was that. He was gone. Dead at last.

But he didn't want that anymore.

"Oh good, you're up," the guard said.

That's when Godot realized that he had just turned off his eyes. He smiled to himself, switched on his visor, and was greeted by the concrete ceiling of his cell. He sat up in his cot and sighed. Another day of living, and yet, it wasn't so bad. He stood up and went to the paper on his wall. He pressed his fingers against it and traced around where he could feel the crayon wax that shaped the invisible heart.

That's when it hit him.

He remembered everything. He recalled the tragedy that had occurred, the sobbing Pearl in his arms, the hope that Iris presented, and the second chance that Mia had to offer.

Things had gone differently for him, but what about the others? There was still a chance that their efforts could have been for naught. The whole tragedy could either be prevented or repeated. Godot's only hope of finding out what had happened rested with Pearl. She had promised to visit him that day, so he hoped and prayed that she would honor that promise and bring word of the others, not come to him for comfort as she had done before.

"You've got an, uh, important visitor." The officer was shifty.

Again.

Godot didn't even bother to check the clock. "Who is it? What's wrong? What happened?" he implored.

The fidgeted awkwardly and mumbled, "I really couldn't turn her away," as he held the door open further, revealing a teary eyed Pearl Fey.

"No." His heart sank. It had happened again. There was no escaping from Dahlia's wrath. He should have known better. Instead of saving anyone, they had just put them through the same horrors twice.

The guard quickly unlocked his cell and Pearl ran straight in and threw herself into Godot's open arms. "Mystic Maya. . . Mystic Maya, she. . ." Pearl sobbed uncontrollably against Godot's prison jumpsuit and just couldn't seem to get out what had happened. "Oh Mister Godot, it was so horrible!"

"I'm so sorry, Pearls. I tried. I wish that there was more that I could do."

The guard rubbed his neck and explained, "There was an incident at that law agency where the Wright guy worked. That mystic girl I mentioned yesterday, she, uh. . ." Even the officer was having a tough time explaining it. "She gave her little cousin there quite the fright."

"What?"

"Pearly, I said I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! It couldn't be helped!" Maya came running down into the prison with a fast food bag in her hand. "I wasn't trying to kill myself!"

"M-Maya?" Godot loosened his hold on Pearl and just stared at her in shock. She hadn't died. Dahlia had lost.

"Mr. Armando! Um, sorry I haven't visited in a while." She was right. He hadn't seen her in years; she looked like a grown woman. She reminded him so much of Mia. "I know that this time is special for you and Pearly, but I hope you won't mind that we brought a few friends along. It's been a really weird morning, so I thought that it would be fun to have a sort of picnic with friends! We wanted you to be a part of that, of course."

A young man with a ridiculous spike of hair came stumbling in with his hands full of fast food bags, and a girl with a gaudy cape and top hat helped him by placing the bags on the guard's desk one at a time. When his hands were finally free he looked at Godot and straightened up. "My name is Apollo Justice! I work with Phoenix as a defense attorney with the Anything Agency! This is Trucy Wright, Phoenix's daughter! It is very nice to meet you, sir!" He gave a stiff bow and was knocked onto his face by a red head girl who entered behind him.

"Geez, Apollo! You're too formal. This guy's a friend right?" The rough girl flashed Godot a smile and held her hand out with the symbol for peace. "I'm Athena, Ace Attorney!" She paused for a moment to get a better look at him and her jaw dropped. "YOU?"

It took him a second, but Godot finally realized just how he recognized her. "YOU! You're the nurse who tried to kill me!"

"Nurse? Cykes-dono would make a terrible nurse." Blackquill walked in behind her. "Why would you think of her as a nurse?"

Edgeworth walked in with the ear of Phoenix's lanky friend firmly grasped between his fingers when he said, "I agree. Miss Cykes was a terrible nurse. She damn near killed me."

"Owww! You're so mean, Edgyyyy! I thought that you were happy to see me!" Larry whined as he was dragged in.

"Surprisingly I was, Larry. Until you decided to make the entire car ride here into your karaoke party!" He cleared his throat after yelling at the guy, then looked to Godot. "Good to see you again."

Godot nodded slowly, still somewhat baffled, and mumbled, "Likewise. You too, Blackquill."

Blackquill bowed his head slightly before asking, "Why do you both think Cykes-dono is a nurse?"

Athena bowed deeply. "I'm _so_ sorry! Can we just forget about that and start over? I'm not usually that violent."

"I beg to differ," Apollo said with a groan as he pulled himself off the floor.

"I wanted to make burgers here with you, but Nick said that we probably wouldn't be allowed to use a grill here," Maya finally explained. "Of course, only Apollo actually managed to make edible burgers last night, so maybe that's for the best."

Godot couldn't deny it. The mass of people was a bit overwhelming, but they were all so lively that he couldn't help but feel relieved. He gave Pearl another squeeze before letting her go and drying her cheeks. "You really had me worried, kid. It's alright. She's okay. Let's just enjoy ourselves."

Pearl sniffled. "I know. It was just so scary." She rubbed her eyes and suddenly brightened. "Oh! We invited someone else too! I don't think you've seen her in a while either."

"Her?" Who else could possibly fill out the place?

"Oh, thank goodness, you guys are all alive!" Iris came running into the room and threw her arms around Maya only to quickly let go. "Erm. Sorry. I mean, it's so nice to see you guys again."

Apollo and Athena both pressed themselves against the far wall. "Th-th-that's Dahlia!" Apollo yelled.

"I thought you guys said she was dead!" Athena hurried over to Apollo and they huddled together as if that would protect them from her.

Maya hastily explained. "No, guys! This is Pearl's older sister, Iris! Iris is Dahlia's twin, but she's entirely different. She's nice!"

She apologized for scaring the defense duo and they heaved a sigh of relief. Her eyes locked on Godot's and somehow, he could tell that she knew. They had both gone though the tragedy once, and now they emerged as the only two with their memories intact.

"Sorry it took us so long." Phoenix finally joined everyone else. In one hand, he held a large silver thermos, and in the other, he carried a couple of coffee mugs. "I had to pick up Iris, and I wasn't entirely sure what kind of coffee to make." He walked into the cell and handed Godot a mug. "It's been a while. Sorry I never thought to visit. I just wasn't sure that you'd even want to see me."

Neither was Godot. He had harbored a grudge against Phoenix the moment that he first woke from his coma, but after all that they had been through he had developed a sort of respect for the man. But how could he say that he _wanted_ to see the man who had given him a life sentence?

Still, it was nice to see him given the circumstances. "You look well, Trite," he said sincerely. "And how could I stay mad at a man who brought me coffee?"

Maya grabbed onto Phoenix's arm, nearly causing him to drop the other mug, and said with a wink, "You might get mad at how bad his coffee is."

"Hey! Don't tell him that!"

"Yeah! Daddy's just never used that coffee maker before! He couldn't know better," Trucy added.

"You mean that coffee maker that we unearthed at the agency?" Apollo wondered.

"It had something in it before the coffee grinds that really didn't look like coffee," Athena pointed out.

Blackquill shuddered and asked, "What demonic purpose could you use a coffee maker for?"

"Maybe it was for one of Trucy's magic tricks?" Larry guessed.

Edgeworth just shrugged and shook his head. "The coffee maker should make no difference. Wright wouldn't know good coffee if it was poured down his throat."

"I don't think Feenie ever made coffee when we were dating. Maybe he's had some practice since then?" Iris wondered.

Phoenix groaned and Pearl giggled. "Mister Nick, I think it's time for you to say it."

"Ooh! This time can I say it too?" Maya asked. "And Iris and Pearly?" she added as she wrapped her arms around her cousins' shoulders.

"Maybe we should all say it?" Apollo said.

Athena nodded vigorously. "Yeah! We'll yell it so loud that the whole world will hear us!"

Edgeworth smirked. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to let the kids in on the courtroom fun."

"What about me, Edgy?" Larry whined.

"I stick to what I said."

Phoenix sighed and poured coffee into the two mugs. "What do you say, Godot? Care to join us?"

"It would feel good to say it again." The whole situation had become rather comical.

Maya happily started the countdown. "Three . . . two . . . one!"

"OBJECTION!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN :: (This is Melody, although we'll both say our final words later)**

**And we're at the end of our first joint Fanfiction! Let me just say that it's been a lot of fun, we have a lot of weird theories due to it, and I'm excited to do another one. So, let's run down the stats. I'm actually doing this a few chapters early, so the counts are likely to be off (I'll try to update it before final posting, but we'll see what I'm too lazy to do later.**

**The Fatal Turnabout ended around 108,500 words, which is roughly as long as Conan Doyle's iconic _Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_. We ended off at 19 chapters (as a bit of trivia, Chapter 19 of Machiavelli's _The Prince_ is about conspiracy and assassination, which is actually kind of fitting, all things considered), and this month alone, we've had readers from 27 countries. Our readership stayed pretty loyal throughout, though we did start to lag behind in comments (is there something wrong with the notification system? The last few comments have alluded to it, and I don't use it). Our highest readership is from the USA, though my new home, the UK, takes a close second. **

**This fanfiction has kind of a hilarious story behind it. Shikola and I are good friends at school, and we used to meet up in the library late and play video games together. While playing Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, I had noticed that one of the Challenge Levels was Samsara's Fall. Samsara is the name of a magazine that is mentioned in the Calling, and with Reiko (Pearl's character) jumping to her death, it immediately made me think of the Calling. As we talked (and laughed) about it, moving on from the subject which somehow led to a picture in Shikola's phone of Nick, Edgeworth, and Godot all in the outfits from the Nurse's Cafe in Trials and Tribulations. Somehow, with the late night and our brains melting information together, we decided to do a crossover of the Phoenix Wright games and the Calling.**

**Because the walkthroughs of the Calling aren't overly explicit, we did our own research, binging the entire game in two days (seriously, we KNOW this game by now) and assigning each character a new role, all while dealing with the loose plot of the Calling. Edgeworth and Phoenix were cast first as Makoto Shirae and Amano Sadao respectively, and Shikola kept their plot pretty much the same (we also picked which characters we wanted to write for; she picked Edgeworth, so I picked Maya, and then we fought over Larry and Godot). Maya took the place of Rin Kagura, but this put the role of Reiko into question. **

**Reiko is a strange character. In the original game, she ends up jumping out of a third story window because of a ton of different reasons, one of the final ones being that Rin (Maya's character) had said she would visit over a chat on the internet, but on the way, gets hit by a truck and is in the hospital. Then, somehow, Reiko's spirit creates the Mnemonic Abyss that starts sucking people into it that were either related to the event (such as the nurses; Adrian and Athena's characters) or had looked at a website called The Black Page. Rin gets sucked in, and Reiko torments her for the next twenty hours of gameplay. In order to win the game, Rin must later call Reiko and explain what happened, and after basically recreating the exact same situation as the first death, wakes up in her own bed.**

**We knew that we wanted Dahlia to be the antagonist. There is no villain I like more than Dahlia Hawthorne, but Maya didn't have the same fondness for Dahlia, and besides, Dahlia was dead. Therefore, Reiko's character had to change. This made us mash up Dahlia, Iris, and Pearl all into Reiko's role. Pearl jumps (albeit for a different reason), Dahlia torments, and Iris is the one who saves Maya in the end. Originally Iris was supposed to have a bigger role (every time Dahlia doesn't attack was originally supposed to be Iris), but I liked writing Dahlia so much that I essentially wrote her out. **

**The entire backstory was changed to reflect the events of the final case of Trials and Tribulations for a few reasons, first one being that it just fit. We had all of the major players (Godot had been cast at this point as Chiyo Kishibe), and since it's basically the best case in the games, it didn't take much to mess with it to fit.**

**The only couple in the Calling is the older couple, Michio and Chiyo Kishibe. Michio meets Reiko while he's in the hospital, and they become friends, he introduces her to Chiyo, who is his wife, before he dies of what I'm going to assume is old age. Reiko is distraught, and obviously Chiyo is too, which is why she goes to the Black Page, which has the rumor that anyone who goes there will be able to speak with the dead.**

**The obvious choice of couple (one alive, one dead?) was Mia and Godot, one of my favorite couples. Chiyo's arc in the story is pretty mild, since she's old and Reiko's actually fond of her. There are few ghost encounters, and Chiyo's old so the majority of the time is spent trying to get her up the three flights of stairs you have to go up. Still, her arc is a nice one, since she gets to see her husband again before returning to life. Go figure. Anyways, Godot and Mia needed something nice. We just kind of ruined it the first time around.**

**Finally, Larry took the role of Shin Suzutani, who is my favorite person to torment in the game. He's basically useless, and he locks himself inside of a bathroom stall, where if you shake the stall, he'll sit there and cry for however long you decide to stick around for. Larry's our favorite useless character, and we picked him knowing that his death would have more of a significance to Maya and Edgeworth than it did for Rin and Makoto. **

**The real challenge for this fanfiction was to have events line up. The Calling's plot isn't overly strong, so linearity and cause and effect tend to go by the wayside (if you remember one of the first Edgeworth chapters, Shikola pointed out that Edgeworth's character gives Maya's character a business card . . . of a phone he had to call to get to). Our challenge was to take the respective chapters and put them together in a timeline. We complicated that task by adding in Missile, who could effectively show up wherever and whenever he wanted to . . . he just couldn't be in two different places at the same time.**

**We hope that you guys enjoyed this, and I'll let Shikola kick off the individual comments, so that you can take a break from me for a while.**

**:: Shikola Krasno ::**

**FINALLY!**

**Yeah, Melody pretty much covered the background to how this whole thing happened. The only thing I can think to add is how Edgeworth and Phoenix got cast in their roles in the first place. To tell the truth: Makoto's ending is a little strange to watch. I'm pretty sure there are youtube videos of the gameplay if anyone's curious, but the quick summary is that Sadao apparently led him around everywhere just so that he could lead him back to his apartment so that they could be "partners" again (before you go thinking anything weird, they both worked on the Samsara magazine). But yeah, Sadao gets really close to Makoto and the last you hear is Makoto's final cries.**

**So, naturally, Melody and I interpreted that the WRONG way. Well, as a running joke, I constantly tease Melody with the Phoenix/Edgeworth pairing, because I love it and she hates it. After looking at that ridiculous picture on my phone again, I figured that their roles matched well. Phoenix could be creepy and would lure Edgeworth around everywhere, and Edgeworth would be logical and try to find a way out only to be stopped by Phoenix. It was a bad joke, but after that we started to fit other characters and this whole monstrosity happened.**

**Not exactly the rainy day, horrible epiphany kind of back story you were expecting, right? I think we just have dark minds.**

**Well, we haven't exactly had a lot of reviews lately, but that's understandable with how much time is usually between our chapters and how little time we left between these last few, but I'll do one little shout out! So 4cherryblossoms, Melody caught me on making Edgeworth a bit too squeamish too, so would you believe she helped to round him out a bit and that's still how he ended up? The fact of the matter is that he had to go through a LOT and all at once too. Maya at least seemed to have gaps between things. Poor Edgeworth only got to go through everything once, so apparently everyone and their mother had to attack him. Ironically, Missile became his coping mechanism. As you could see at the end of the Curse, Missile made Edgeworth look crazier than ever too. I'm also glad to know that you know Ghost Trick! Melody and I may end up making it our personal goal to put Missile in everything. . . That might not be possible. . . or plausible. . . but damn it, we'll try!**

**To all of our readers, Melody and I are grateful that you have put up with us long enough to get here! Next up will be both Zero Escape/Dangan Ronpa and Sailor Moon/Fatal Frame! We'll try to be more consistent with those, but not promises! We'll also get up some of the extra chapters for this story, but when no longer matters as much. They're not the priority. Now.**

**Thanks again for reading!**

**Melody Canta :: **

**Tee hee. Quick thanks to Shikola, since it was my first time writing with her (and writing with anyone else, to be honest. It's been a long trial). It was so much fun, we're doing more! :D**

**As Shikola said, you can see us with Zero Escape/Dangan Ronpa and Sailor Moon/Fatal Frame soon, whenever we get around to writing the first chapters of those. If you do an Author Watch, hopefully Fanfiction will flag it so that both of those will pop up. We'll get back around to the Phoenix Wright fandom for something new eventually, it's just time to spread our horizons a little.**

**A major thanks to our readers, since our posting times weren't exactly consistent, and you guys have been through two rounds of finals, us getting obsessed over _The Wind Rises_, and my moving across the world, so if you enjoyed this, feel free to leave us a comment or send us a message; we don't bite! Feel free to follow us around to the different fandoms we're posting in! **

**So, thanks again, hats off, and we'll see you guys around!**


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